These long conferences were bitter trials to the patience of the
captain, who had no respect either for the governor or his island, and
was anxious to push on in quest of provisions and water. As soon as
he could get his inquisitive partners once more on board, he weighed
anchor, and made sail for the island of Woahoo, the royal residence of
Tamaahmaah.
This is the most beautiful island of the Sandwich group. It is forty-six
miles in length and twenty-three in breadth. A ridge of volcanic
mountains extends through the centre, rising into lofty peaks, and
skirted by undulating hills and rich plains, where the cabins of the
natives peep out from beneath groves of cocoanut and other luxuriant
trees.
On the 21st of February the Tonquin cast anchor in the beautiful bay
before the village of Waititi, (pronounced Whyteetee.) the abode of
Tamaahmaah. This village contained about two hundred habitations,
composed of poles set in the ground, tied together at the ends, and
thatched with grass, and was situated in an open grove of cocoanuts. The
royal palace of Tamaahmaah was a large house of two stories; the lower
of stone, the upper of wood. Round this his body-guard kept watch,
composed of twenty-four men in long blue cassocks, turned up with
yellow, and each armed with a musket.
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