- brown wood, into which his majesty ever and
anon ejected all his superabundant saliva.
After he had arrived on the deck, Tamaahmaah shook hands in the most condescending manner with every one he met between the cabin and the gang-way, exclaiming to each person, "Aroah, Aroah nuee" (I love you, I love you much.) There was a degree of negligent simplicity about his dress, which strongly characterised the royal philosopher. His head was crowned with an old woollen hat; the coat was formed of coarse blue cloth in the antique shape, with large metal buttons; the waistcoat, of brown velvet, which in its youthful days had been black: a pair of short, tight, and well-worn velveteen pantaloons displayed to great advantage coarse worsted stockings and thick-soled shoes, all admirably adapted for the tropics; while his shirt and cravat, which had formerly been white, seemed to have had a serious misunderstanding with their washerwoman. Such, gentle reader, was the costume of Tamaahmaah the First, king of the Sandwich Islands, hereditary prince of Owhyee, and protector of a confederation of escaped convicts from New South Wales!"[1]*
- ↑ Tamaahmaah was hereditary king of Owhyee only; he
