POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
387 
which was the former mode of punishment, but they 
were hanged on a cocoa-nut tree, in a conspicuous part 
of the district. 
In the year 1821, a conspiracy was formed to assassi¬ 
nate the king, and two men, who were proceeding to the 
accomplishment of their murderous purpose, were 
apprehended with others concerned in the plot. The 
names of the two leaders were Pori and Mariri. Sentence 
of death was passed upon them, and they were hanged on 
a rude gallows, formed by fastening a pole horizontally 
between two cocoa-nut trees. These are the only exe¬ 
cutions that have taken place in the islands. It is not 
probable that many will be thus punished. The Mission¬ 
aries interceded on behalf of the culprits, and secured a 
mitigation of punishment for the rest of the offenders. 
The judicial proceedings in the different districts of 
Tahiti, were divested, as much as possible, of all formality, 
and though some trifling irregularities, and slight embar¬ 
rassments, as might be expected, were occasionally ex¬ 
perienced, among a people totally unaccustomed to act 
in these matters according to any prescribed form, yet, 
upon the whole, the administration of justice by the 
native magistrates, was such as to give general satisfac¬ 
tion. The following account, by an eye-witness* of 
their proceedings on one of these occasions, will not be 
uninteresting. 
At the time appointed, a great many people, of both 
sexes and all ages, assembled under some very fine 
trees, near the queen’s house. A small bench was 
brought for the two judges 5 the rest either stood or sat 
upon the ground, forming something less than a semi¬ 
circle. We were provided with low seats near the 
* Capt. G. C. Gam’oier, R, N. 
