UFOLU — MANONO — SAVAII. 93 



of murder, and declared the course he had considered it his duty to 

 adopt, The chiefs listened attentively to this address, and in reply, 

 through the principal one, admitted that the man taken was in 

 reality the guilty person, a fact known to every person upon the 

 island. Captain Hudson then stated to them that it was absolutely 

 necessary that Tuvai should be promptly punished, in order that 

 others might be deterred from the commission of the same crime. 

 He suggested, however, that in spite of the universal belief in Tuvai's 

 having committed the crime, it was proper that he should undergo a 

 trial, or at least an examination, in order that he might have the 

 privilege of being heard in his own defence. 



This suggestion being approved, Tuvai was brought on shore under 

 a military guard, and placed in the centre of the building. He was 

 an ill-looking fellow, of about twenty-eight years of age, and mani- 

 fested no fear, but looked about him with the greatest composure. 



The trial was simple enough; he was first asked by the chiefs 

 whether he was guilty of the crime, to which he answered that he 

 was ; being next asked why he had committed it, he replied that he 

 had done it in order to possess himself of the man's property, (clothes 

 and a knife.) 



The chiefs, among whom was Pea, of Apia, to whom the criminal 

 was distantly related, made every effort in their power to save his 

 life ; stating that he was ia darkness, and therefore unconscious of 

 the guilt of the action, when he committed the murder; that as they 

 had but just emerged from heathenism they ought not to be subjected 

 for past actions, to laws they knew not ; that these laws were made 

 for people who occupied a more elevated station; that Tuvai was a 

 poor man of no account, and was not a person of sufficient impor- 

 tance to be noticed by a great people like us ; that Faa Samoa (the 

 Samoan fashion) did not allow men to be put to death in cold blood, 

 but that after so long a time had elapsed, as in the instance before 

 them, it admitted of a ransom. 



Pea went on to say, that many bad acts had been committed upon 

 natives by white men, with impunity, and asked whether the Chris- 

 tian religion sanctioned the taking of human life. He then appealed 

 to our generosity to pardon the present crime, and assured us that no 

 such offences should be committed in future. 



Pea had one of those countenances which exhibits all that is 

 passing in the mind. It was amusing to see him at one time exhi- 

 biting a picture of whimsical distress at the idea of being compelled 



vol. 11. 24 



