1777* TIIE PACIFIC OCEAN. 4()3 



riors, when called out upon service ; but, by all 

 accounts, this is very seldom. The king frequently 

 took some pains to inform us of Feenou's office ; and 

 among other things, told us that if he himself should 

 become a bad man, Feenou would kill him. What 

 I understood by this expression of being a bad man, 

 was, that if he did not govern according to law or 

 custom, Feenou would be ordered, by the other great 

 men, or by the people at large, to put him to death. 

 There should seem to be no doubt, that a sove- 

 reign, thus liable to be controled and punished for 

 an abuse of power, cannot be called a despotic 

 monarch. 



When we consider the number of islands that 

 compose this little state, and the distance at which 

 some of them lie from the seat of government, at- 

 tempts to throw off the yoke, and to acquire inde- 

 pendency, it should seem, might be apprehended; 

 but they tell us that this never happens. One reason 

 why they are not thus disturbed, by domestic quar- 

 rels, may be this ; that all the powerful chiefs, as 

 we have already mentioned, reside at Tongataboo. 

 They also secure the dependence of the other islands 

 by the celerity of their operations ; for if, at any 

 time, a troublesome and popular man should start 

 up in any of them, Feenou, or whoever holds his 

 office, is immediately dispatched thither to kill him. 

 By this means, they crush a rebellion in its very 

 infancy. 



The orders or classes amongst their chiefs, or those 

 who call themselves such, seemed to be almost as 

 numerous as amongst us ; but there are few in com- 

 parison that are lords of large districts of territory, 

 the rest holding their lands under those principal 

 barons, as they may be called. I was indeed told 

 that when a man of property dies, every thing he 

 leaves behind him falls to the king; but that it is usual 

 to give it to the eldest son of the deceased, with an 

 obligation to make a provision out of it for the rest 



