THE PACIFICOCEAN. 173. 



kill another in a quarrel, the friends of the deceafed af- ^ 1777. 



•• , December. . 



lemble, and engage the furvivor and his adherents. If 

 they conquer, they take pofTeilion of the houfe, lands, and 

 goods of the other party; but if conquered, the reverfe 

 takes place. If a Manahoone kill the Toutou, or Have of a 

 Chief, the latter fends people to take poflTeflion of the lands 

 and houfe of the former, who flies either to fome other 

 part of the ifland, or to fome of the neighbouring iflands. 

 After fome months he returns, and finding his flock of 

 hogs much increafed, he offers a large prefent of thcfe, with 

 fome red feathers, and other valuable articles, to the Toiitou'^ 

 mailer, who generally accepts the compenfation, and per- 

 mits him to repoflefs his houfe and lands. This pra(5licc is 

 the height of venality and injuftice ; and the flayer of the 

 flave feems to be under no farther neceffity of abfconding, 

 than to impofe upon the lower clafs of people who are the 

 fuff'erers. For it does not appear, that the Chief has the leaft 

 power to punifli this Manahoone; but the whole management: 

 marks a collufion between him and his fuperior, to gratify 

 the revenge of the former, and the avarice of the latter. 

 Indeed, we need not wonder that the killing of a man 

 Ihould be confidered as fo venial an offence, amongft a people 

 who do not confider it as any crime at all, to murder their 

 own children. When, talking to them about fuch inflances 



. of unnatural cruelty, and aiking, whether the Chiefs or 

 principal people were not angry, and did not punifli them? 



* 1 was told, that the Chief neither could nor would interfere 

 in fuch cafes ; and that every one had a right to do with . 

 his own child what he pleafed. 



Though the producftions, the people, and the cuftoms 

 and manners of all the iflands in the neighbourhood, may, 

 in general, be reckoned the fame as at Otaheitc, there are 



a few-.- 



