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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
laws^ by which they had mutually agreed to be governed, 
would be violated with impunity. Some of the latter 
observed. If the king’s son does not escape, what will 
become of the common men ? 
Taaroarii, the chief of Sir Charles Sanders’ Island, and 
the expected successor to his father in the sovereignty 
of Huahine, was now obliged to dive into the sea for 
coral, and assist in building the portion of stone-work 
allotted to him. His friends and attendants performed 
the greater part of the labour ; still there was a feeling 
of pride, that would not allow him to stand altogether 
idle. I visited his house one evening, and entered freely 
into conversation with him on the subject. He observed, 
that he was sorry for what he had done, but appeared 
to indicate, that he did not wish it to be thought that 
the work assigned him was any punishment. 
Several unsteady young men and women, who fol¬ 
lowed the example of the first party, were also tried, and 
sentenced to similar punishments; and afterwards two 
principal personages in the island, by having their bodies 
tataued, joined their party s these two were the son of 
the king of Raiatea, who was residing at Huahine, and 
his sister, who had been married to a member of Ma- 
hine’s family. Their party was now strong, both in 
point of number and influence, and we expected that the 
simple circumstance of marking the person with tatau, 
was only one of the preliminaries of their design; and in 
this we were not mistaken. 
In the month of August, we heard that Taaroarii, with 
a number of those whom the chiefs had sentenced to 
labour on the public works, had left their employment, 
and were gone to Parea, in the northern part of the 
island. They told the officers of the chief appointed to 
