IX. 



March, 

 1826. 



296 VOYAGE TO THE 



chap, manner in which I intended to visit the misde- 

 meanour. The prisoners at first acknowledged their 

 guilt, but afterwards denied it ; and declared they 

 had been induced to make the confession from the 

 threats of the aavas who apprehended them. No- 

 thing was found upon them, and no person could be 

 brought forward as a direct witness of the fact ; so 

 that their guilt rested on circumstantial evidence 

 alone. I was, however, anxious to bring the of- 

 fenders to trial, as all the sails and the stores of the 

 ship were on shore, and at the mercy of the inha- 

 bitants; and unless severe measures were pursued in 

 this instance, successive depredations would in all 

 probability have occurred. The chiefs were in con- 

 sequence summoned, and at an early date the pri- 

 soners were brought to trial opposite the anchorage. 

 As it was an extraordinary case, I was invited to the 

 tribunal, and paid the compliment of being allowed 

 to interrogate the prisoners ; but nothing conclusive 

 was elicited, though the circumstantial proof was so 

 much against them that five out of six of the chiefs 

 pronounced them guilty. The penalty in the event 

 of conviction in a case of this nature is, that the cul- 

 prit shall pay fourfold the value of the property 

 stolen : in this instance, however, as the articles could 

 not be replaced, and the value was far beyond what 

 the individuals could pay, 1 proposed, as the chiefs 

 referred the matter to me, that, by way of an 

 example, and to deter others from similar acts, the 

 prisoners should suffer corporal punishment. Their 

 laws, however, did not admit of this mode of punish- 

 ment, and the matter concluded by the chiefs making 

 themselves responsible for the stores, and directing 

 Pa-why to acquaint the people that they had done 

 so, promising to make further inquiry into the mat- 



