236 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
convince the people that the government would 
act according to the laws, and to deter others from 
their violation, he directed that his son should be 
tried. Taaroarii received the sentence with apparent 
indifference, but was so exasperated with his father, 
that he more than once threatened to murder him, 
or to cause his destruction. 
Some months after this he broke a blood-vessel, 
it is supposed, with over-exertion at the public 
work appointed as a penalty for his crime. After 
this, he laid aside his labour; his people would at 
the first have performed the work for him, but he 
would not allow it, and appeared to identify himself 
with them, in the humiliating situation to which 
they had reduced themselves. In the conversations 
we sometimes had with him, he seemed to regret 
having connected himself with the party who now 
considered him as their leader. 
Shortly after this event, symptoms of rapid con¬ 
sumption appeared, and assumed an alarming 
character. All available means were promptly 
employed, but without effect. His father fre¬ 
quently visited him, and his wife was his constant 
attendant. In order to try the effect of change of 
air, he was laid upon a litter, and brought on men’s 
shoulders into the valley, where a temporary 
encampment had been erected near our dwell¬ 
ing. The chiefs of the island, with their guards, 
attended, and, when they reached the valley, 
fired three volleys of musketry, indicative of their 
sympathy. 
While he remained here, we often saw him ; 
he was generally communicative, and sometimes 
cheerful, excepting when the topic of religion was 
introduced, and then an evident change of feeling 
took place; he would attend to our observations, 
