194 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
preserves society from any future injury by his 
means; and the fatal punishment inflicted, it is 
presumed, will deter others from the commission 
of similar offences. The security of the commu¬ 
nity from all future violation or outrage, is certainly 
obtained by the death of the criminal; but expe¬ 
rience and observation abundantly demonstrate 
the inadequacy of public executions to restrain 
from the most appalling deeds. Every repetition 
of the awful spectacle appears to diminish its 
horrific character, until those habituated to felony 
become familiar with its heaviest punishment. The 
principal end of public executions is thus defeated, 
the general tone of public feeling lowered, and 
that which was designed to be the most effectual 
moral barrier, is at length converted into an occa¬ 
sion, or sought for as an opportunity, for the com¬ 
mission of crime. 
By recommending the omission of capital punish¬ 
ments, we avoided this evil, and, regarding the 
peculiar circumstances of the . nation, were in hopes 
thereby indirectly to elevate the tone of moral 
feeling, and improve the sensibilities, of a people 
emerging from a state of barbarism, in which mur¬ 
der, and retaliated murder, had not only been 
familiar, but committed with brutal satisfaction. 
The existence of a number of islands uninha¬ 
bited,' but capable of cultivation, and, from the 
cocoa-nut trees growing on their borders, and the fish 
to be found near their shores, capable of furnishing 
the means of subsistence, and yet too remote to 
allow of the convicts returning, or proceeding to 
another island in any vessel they could construct, 
appeared to afford the means of answering every 
end of public justice. The community would be 
as safe from future injury, as if the offender had 
