Oo-Oo-Rou, Who Is The Earee By Hereditary Right, Seems To
Have Little More Left Him Than The Bare Title, And His Own Whenooa
Or District, In Which I Think He Is Sovereign.
I have always seen Oree pay
him the respect due to his rank; and he was pleased when he saw me
distinguish him from others.
Otaha, so far as I can find, is upon the very same footing. Boba and Ota
are the two chiefs; the latter I have not seen; Boba is a stout, well-made
young man; and we were told is, after Opoony's death, to marry his
daughter, by which marriage he will be vested with the same regal authority
as Opoony has now; so that it should seem, though a woman may be vested
with regal dignity, she cannot have regal power. I cannot find that Opoony
has got any thing to himself by the conquest of these isles, any farther
than providing for his nobles, who have seized on best part of the lands.
He seems to have no demand on them for any of the many articles they have
had from us. Oedidee has several times enumerated to me all the axes,
nails, &c. which Opoony is possessed of, which hardly amount to as many as
he had from me when I saw him in 1769. Old as this famous man is, he seems
not to spend his last days in indolence. When we first arrived here, he was
at Maurana; soon after he returned to Bolabola; and we were now told, he
was gone to Tubi.
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