I found the chief Tati to be a lively old man nearly ninety years of age, who remembered perfectly the second landing of the celebrated circumnavigator of the globe, Captain Cook.

His father was, at that period, the principal chief, and had concluded a friendly alliance with Cook, and, according to the custom then prevalent at Tahiti, had changed names with him.
Tati enjoys from the French government a yearly pension of 6,000 francs (240 pounds), which, after his death, will fall to his eldest son.
He had with him his young wife and five of his sons; the former was twenty-three years old, and the ages of the latter varied from twelve to eighteen.

The children were all the offspring of other marriages, this being his fifth wife.
As we had not left Papeiti till nearly noon, and as the sun sets soon after six o'clock, and the passage between the numberless rocks is highly dangerous, we landed at Paya (22 miles), where a sixth son of Tati's ruled as chief.
The island is intersected in all directions by noble mountains, the loftiest of which, the Oroena, is 6,200 feet high.

In the middle of the island the mountains separate, and a most remarkable mass of rock raises itself from the midst of them.

It has the form of a diadem with a number of points, and it is to this circumstance that it owes its name.