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467 
they should do^ there were so many of them. Formerly, 
they said, the disobedience of so numerous a party to 
any order of the chiefs, would have been considered equi¬ 
valent to a declaration of war, and they should have sent 
armed men after them at once, and either have slain or 
banished the delinquents; but now, as they had laws, 
they wished to know whether it would be right that 
they should all be tried, and, if found guilty, have the 
sentence annexed to the crime pronounced against them. 
We told the chiefs it would not be wrong, and the 
next morning attended the trial. It was conducted with 
the greatest candour and forbearance on the part of the 
magistrates and accusers, and an equal degree of sub¬ 
mission on the part of the offenders, though it appeared 
they had supposed that from their numbers, and the cir¬ 
cumstance of one or two young chiefs of distinction 
being among them, the government would not have 
noticed their conduct. They were sentenced to build 
a certain quantity of stone-work on the margin of the 
sea. 
In a day or two afterwards, it was discovered that 
Taaroarii, the king’s son, a youth about eighteen years 
of age, had also been tataued; and this being considered 
as an expression of his disapprobation of his father’s 
conduct, and of his determination as to the conduct he 
designed to pursue, produced a great sensation among 
the people. His venerable father was deeply affected, 
and the struggle between affection for his son, and his 
duty to the people, was evidently strong. The latter 
prevailed; he directed him to be tried, and attended him 
to the trial: here he affectionately admonished his son to 
profit by his experience, and warned the spectators, 
telling them not to be deceived, and suppose that the 
