428 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
occasions, give sixty dollars, others ten or five, and 
some only one. 
A short time before his embarkation for England, a 
large native house was built for Rihoriho, at Honoruru, 
in the island of Oahu. During three days after the 
king went into it, the people came with their gifts. No 
individual, not even the queens, entered the house 
without presenting the king a sum of money; several 
gave upwards of fifty dollars ; and we saw more than 
two thousand dollars received in one day. A similar 
tax was also levied by Kuakini, the governor at Kai- 
rua, when he first entered a handsome framed house, 
recently erected there. 
Until the establishment of a Christian mission among 
them, the Sandwich Islanders had no records, and con¬ 
sequently no written laws. There is, however, a kind 
of traditionary code, a number of regulations which 
have been either promulgated by former kings, or fol¬ 
lowed by general consent, respecting the tenure of lands, 
right of property, personal security, and exchange or 
barter, which are well understood, and usually acted 
upon. The portion of personal labour due from a 
tenant to his chief is fixed by custom, and a chief 
would be justified in banishing the person who should 
refuse it when required; on the other hand, were a 
chief to banish a man who had rendered it, and paid 
the stipulated rent, his conduct would be contrary to 
their opinions of right, and if the man complained to 
the governor or the king, and no other charge was 
brought against him, he would most likely be rein¬ 
stated. The irrigation of their plantations is of great 
importance in most parts, and there is a law that the 
water shall be conducted over every plantation twice 
