Three Accounts of the Vasil'ev-Shismarev Expedition of 1819-1822

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with the telegraph that the king some time ago had established his residence on Vahu [Oahu] Island, having an excellent harbour, and that we were to go there for this reason.

We approached the small harbor of Tiatatua toward three o'clock, and were completely becalmed. At this time we saw a large pirogue [dug-out canoe] accompanied by a multitude of small ones coming to us from the shore. Soon they approached the side, and the governor of the island stepped on deck, the uncle of the king, known under the name of Mer-Adems.³ Such a tremendous human figure we had not before had occasion to see. He was seven feet tall and correspondingly fat. He presented himself to us dressed in a brown frockcoat, the same kind of breeches, and with a round straw hat. By the way, he was without any stocking or shoes. He spoke English rather fluently. He brought us presents of coconuts, bananas, pineapples, watermelons, patatas or sweet potatoes, and taro, a root constituting the main food of these islanders, and about which I shall talk in more detail later. Our sailors traded such fruit from other islanders for various knickknacks and walrus teeth, but the natives did not value them very highly and took more willingly Spanish piasters, valuing them, incidently, very low. They remained with us until five o'clock. Then, a rather fresh wind arising from the NE forced them to leave, and toward morning we approached Vahu Island. But getting becalmed here, we were obliged to spend the night at sea. After midnight, there arose a light SW breeze with which we