366 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of high rank, or of extensive influence, was seldom at¬ 
tempted, unless the measure was approved by the other 
chiefs. The sovereign was, therefore, more desirous to 
conciliate their esteem, and engage their co-operation, 
than to prejudice them against his person or measures. 
As he had no permanent armed force at his disposal, he 
could not, on every occasion, accomplish his wishes; 
and, at times, when he has issued his mandate for the 
banishment of a raatira, if the other raatiras deemed his 
expulsion unwarrantable, they have desired him to keep 
possession of his lands, and then, remonstrating with the 
king, have declared their determination to maintain the 
cause of the injured party, even by force of arms. The 
extent of power possessed by the raatiras, in the number 
of their tenantry and dependants, was one of the greatest 
sources of embarrassment to the government, whose 
measures were only regulated by the will of the ruler, or 
the exigencies of the state. 
In the division of their country, the natives appear to 
have had a remarkable predilection for the number eight. 
Almost every island, whatever its size, is divided into 
eight districts, and the inhabitants into an equal number 
of mataina, or divisions. In each district the power of 
the chief was supreme, and greater than that which the 
king exercised over the whole. This power extended 
to the persons and lives, as well as the property, of the 
people. 
The inferior chiefs also exercised the same authority 
over their dependants. The father was magistrate in his 
own family ; the chief in his own district; and the king 
nominally dispensed law and justice to the whole. The 
final appeal, in all matters of dispute, was made to the 
chief ruler; and the parties who resorted to his decision, 
