The Boy-King Of Tahiti

And His Treaty

By W. W. Bolton, M.A.

Part Ii.

ANOINTED and crowned, the little lad Pomare 111. had his freedom till five years were notched against him, when he was borne off to school at Afareaitu (Moorea), where his father and mother had lived and his baby elder brother, i’ina, lay in his grave.

English was to be a second mother tongue to him, in addition to his studies in the three R’s. He was a schoolboy now and there would doubtless have been nought to go on record as worthy of remembrance but for an incident into which he was all innocently drawn to play a part that might well have ended in international trouble. Out of it, how ever, a treasure came, a letter written and signed in his boyish hand, which makes up in some measure for the absence of his likeness which no amount of search, locally and in two continents, has found.

In 1826 Commander Jones, of the United States sloop-of-war Peacock, ap peared at the Society Islands and at Raiatea endeavouring to arrange a treaty of trade between that group and his country. In the person of Rev. John Williams, he met a determined opponent.

With him it was “All England,” and as he wielded immense influence with the chiefs in that cluster of islands Com

mander Jones gave up the attempt.

He turned, therefore, to the Georgian Islands and sailed to Tahiti with hopes of finding a kindlier welcome.

Through the courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, the following extract from The Australian newspaper for March 10, 1827, in which a long letter appears from a correspondent at the Society Island of Huahine, dated Janu ary 16, 1827, states the matter of the Peacock's visit very pomt’edly. It reads: ‘‘Uncle Jonathan has an idea that these islands, with their matchless harbours and abundance, would be a very fine thing for his ships to run to in case of war . . . He has accordingly tried a piece of cunning with the Tahitian chiefs to get them to place America on the same footing with the most favoured nation, and to pledge themselves to protect their ships in case of being followed by any enemy into these ports . . .

“The sloop-of-war Peacock came to Tahiti with this object, whose comman der, Captain Jones, a very quiet kind of a man, first anchored here, then there . . . till he met with a missionary whom he could mould and handle to his pur pose whilst not divulging his project to the rest. Such a man he found -whose vanity was greater than his judgment and prudence, and who, imposed upon by sophisticated constructions of what he knew nothing about and had no business with, induced two chiefs and the young king to sign the instrument which will probably breed a serious difference be tween England and America.”

The treaty was drawn up and signed either at the South Sea Academy or on board the Peacock in the offing of Afare aitu, for no word of it had reached Ta hiti till it went to the Regent for con firmation. It caused no little consterna tion and flurry in official circles in Papeete, and at the British Consulate, where Vice-Consul Elley was holding the post during the absence at Honolulu of h.s chief, Captain Charlton, it greatly disturbed that gentleman.

It was felt by one and all that it might give great offence to Great Britain whence all looked as the source of their comfort and security. There was but one thing to be done: to repudiate it whole sale; and Commander Jones was so in formed without any mincing of words.

But this “very quiet kind of a man” had not yet done with Royalty. If the boy king’s signature was no good, the little lad himself was not be cast aside. It was not every day that the Commander con sorted with kings or that the Peacock spread its sails to carry Royalty. The next scene is shown us in the following excerpt from the daily journal of Rev.

W. P. Crook, dated August 30, 1826: “I proceeded by boat to Wilks’ Harbour (Papeete, of to-day) to Brother Pritch ard’s. Brother Orsmond had just arrived on board the Peacock with the young king, and a number of cannon were fined on the occasion.”

Commander done'’ was having a “royal” time indeed. What the six-year old schoolboy thought of it all is left to conjecture. The tutor saw to the good

manners alike with the studies of his charge, and accordingly on August 31 the boy paid a formal visit to the Peacock and its commander to give thanks for a fine trip and holiday. This brings the cordial commander upon the scene for the last time.

He was sailing away from Tahitian waters and would probably not again see this mite of Royalty, so he penned a farewell letter a few hours before anchor was weighed. These following extracts are from the remarkable epistle, written be it noted not on his own paper but evidently borrowed from his friend, Brother Orsmond. for it has the British Crown as its watermark and the date of issue 1825: U.S. Sloop-of-war Peacock , Papeete, September, 1, 1826.

“ . . . I congratulate myself on having the first ship of war belonging to the United States of North America which has ever visited the Kingdom of Tahiti, and return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me by your visit to the Peacock this day. . . . King Pomare, it is with the deepest interest I contemplate your high calling . . . never forget that Kings were made for and by the people and not the people for Kings.”

He asked the child “to use his influence in favour of those faithful missionaries of the cross to which you owe every thing.” Tr^T He put in a special word for his friend the tutor (Orsmond): “Above all the kind friend who has adopted you as one of his own family is entitled to your boundless and unceasing gratitude.” With an eye to the lad’s future he enclosed “a likeness of the Great Father of my

country, the illustrious Washington, a man whose character you would do well to study, and whose virtues the most favoured may be proud to imitate,”

The Peacock gone, neither Regent nor Elley had yet done with that treaty.

There had to be an accounting. Those arch-plotters must be reached through the child. No child of six could under stand the business —he had acted as his mentors told him. To him the Consul wrote; to which came this reply, on its very face a concoction for his use and signature but a treasure despite the weakness of his excuse. Written in Tahitian it reads: Griffin Town, Afareaitu, Moorea, October 13, 1826.

“Dear Sir, —I have not abandoned King George IV. I still look to him. I will regard what he says. He is my refuge.

But it was a custom of my father to be kind to all men; therefore I wrote that paper for Captain Jones.—Pomare III.”

Back once again at school, he won the unstinted praise of his teachers for dili gence and obedience. Between tutor-in chief and royal pupil there was a real affection.

It was the rainy season. The lad caught, cold and fever set in. His master was worried as the fever increased despite every effort. The boy was visibly weaken ing. School was no place for him: the rather his mother’s home across the strait. Arriving at the native “palace” in Papeete (the foundation stones of which still lie nearby) all possible was done for him by mother, aunt, high chiefs, and natives wise in sicknesses.

The New Year opened with the little lad now heading for his seventh year, but within a week it was clear that the end was near. His devoted tutor had never left his side and, in the death scene, record shows him as pre-eminent— he loved the child. The women dis traught, the chiefs helpless Orsmond lifted the wasted form from the couch, and (bending to native custom) called for the cloth to cover him and the pre cious burden he would hold till death took it from him; and in Orsmond’s arm’s the Boy-King died.

The date was January 8, 1827.