1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 145 



before the ship first arrived there ; and, in return, I 

 afterward carried him on board, and introduced him 

 to Captain Cook, who invited him to dine with us. 

 While we were at table, Pareea entered, whose face 

 but too plainly manifested his indignation, at seeing 

 our guest in so honourable a situation. He imme- 

 diately seized him by the hair of the head, and was 

 proceeding to drag him out of the cabin, when the 

 captain interfered ; and, after a great deal of alter- 

 cation, all the indulgence we could obtain, without 

 coming to a quarrel with Pareea, was, that our guest 

 t should be suffered to remain, being seated upon the 

 floor, whilst Pareea filled his place at the table. At 

 another time, when Terreeoboo first came on board 

 the Resolution, Maiha-maiha, who attended him, 

 finding Pareea on deck, turned him out of the ship 

 in the most ignominious manner ; and yet Pareea, 

 we certainly knew, to be a man of the first conse- 

 quence. 



How 7 far the property of the lower class is secured 

 against the rapacity and despotism of the great 

 chiefs, I cannot say ; but it should seem, that it is 

 sufficiently protected against private theft, or mutual 

 depredation. For not only their plantations, which 

 are spread over the whole country, but also their 

 houses, their hogs, and their cloth, were left un- 

 guarded, without the smallest apprehensions. I have 

 already remarked, that they not only separate their 

 possessions by walls in the plain country, but that, in 

 the woods likewise, wherever the horse-plantains 

 grow r , they make use of small white flags, in the same 

 manner, and for the same purpose of discriminating 

 property, as they do bunches of leaves at Otaheite. 

 All which circumstances, if they do not amount to 

 proofs, are strong indications that the power of the 

 chiefs, where property is concerned, is not arbitrary ; 

 but, at least, so far circumscribed and ascertained, as 

 to make it worth the while for the inferior orders to 



VOL. VII. l 



