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Vol. I.
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ADVICE OF CAPTAIN FINCH.

279

between the Teiis and Taipiis. Only a short timesince, a party of Taipiis stole into the bay in whichwe are at anchor, at the dead of night, and creepingguardedly into a house near the beach whose inmates,seven in number, three men, three women, and achild, were wrapt in unconscious sleep, seized andoverpowered them, and bore them off in triumph, tobe sacrificed to the manes of a distinguished chief,before any alarm could be communicated to theirneighbours. Urging this violence as a just cause forfighting, the chiefs and warriors now again pleadedwith the captain to join with them in punishing theirenemies, or at least to supply them with guns andpowder for that purpose.

While he admitted the atrocity of the crime, herecommended them notwithstanding to seek peaceand to maintain it with all their fellow-tribes, withthe assurance that neither this nor any ofPortersships would ever aid them in their conflicts.

It appears that after the subduction of the Taipiisby Commodore Porter in!814, Keatanui, at the timechief of the Teiis at Taiohae, became virtually andavowedly the king of the whole of Nukuhiva , andwas succeeded at his death in this honour by Moanahis son, the father of the present prince Moana. Allthe tribes, including the Taipiis, partially at leastacknowledge the boy, whose maternal grandmotheris a chief woman of that tribe, still living at theirprincipal valley, as the rightful prince of the whole;and Captain Finch strongly recommended to themafter a reconciliation should take place, to convene ageneral council, at which he should formally be pro-