t, and as
sovereign of the whole Archipelago, took up his residence in Tahaiti. He
left to the conquered Kings the government of their islands, requiring
from them a yearly tribute in pigs and fruits; and to consolidate his
dominion by family connexion, he married a daughter of the most powerful
of these royal vassals, her three sisters, according to an ancient
custom, becoming at the same time his wives.

Peace was thus restored to Tahaiti and the whole Archipelago. Pomareh
was a wise and mild ruler. He left his subjects undisturbed in their new
religion, although he did not profess it himself. The Missionaries, now
limited to their powers of persuasion, found means to retain their
disciples in their adopted faith, so that the refugees of the mountains
preferred remaining in their retreats, to finding themselves objects of
hatred and contempt amongst their old friends and relations. At length
Pomareh himself, with his whole family, yielded to the arguments of the
Missionary Nott, allowed himself to be baptized, and died as a
Christian, in the prime of life, in consequence of an immoderate
indulgence in the spirituous liquors which he had obtained from the
ships of his new brethren.

An unconquerable passion for ardent spirits had acquired an entire
dominion over him, although he was so well aware of their deleterious
effects, as to have often exclaimed, when under the influence of
intoxication, "O King, to-day could thy fat swine govern better than
thou canst!" This weakness was, however, so much over-balanced by his
many good qualities, his well-tried valour, his inflexible justice, his
constant mildness and generosity, that he possessed to the last the
universal esteem and love of his subjects, by whom his loss was still
deplored when we arrived at Tahaiti, almost two years after his death,
although he had reigned as an unlimited monarch, and they now possessed
a constitution resembling, or rather aping, that of England. This had
been introduced by the influence of the Missionaries, whose power over
the minds of the Tahaitians is unbounded; they had persuaded the people
to adopt it during the minority of Pomareh's son, a child of four years
old at the period of our visit; but from the general regret with which
the days of the absolute King were remembered, it did not appear to have
given much satisfaction.

According to this Constitution, Tahaiti is divided into nineteen
districts, and the neighbouring island of E