LAWS, OR REGULATIONS. 421 
retaliation; for, in the event of their making any 
opposition, the people of a whole district would 
support those who were thus punishing the indi¬ 
viduals by whom theft had been perpetrated. 
When robbery had been committed on the pro¬ 
perty of a high chief, or to any great amount, the 
thief, in some of the islands, was frequently bound 
hand and foot, placed in an old decayed canoe, 
towed out to sea, and turned adrift. The canoe 
speedily filled, and the culprit, being bound, soon 
sunk beneath the waves. 
Adultery among the highest ranks has been 
punished with death by decapitation. 
In the transactions of barter among themselves, 
there are several regulations which they punctually 
observe. No bargain was considered binding till 
the articles were actually exchanged, and the re¬ 
spective owners expressed themselves satisfied. 
Afterwards there was no withdrawing, however 
injurious the bargain might be to either party. 
There is, in the Sandwich Islands, no class of 
men, either peasants or mechanics, who are re¬ 
gularly employed as day-labourers, or who receive 
for their work a stipulated payment, except those 
employed by foreigners. In hiring workmen to 
dig stone, bum lime, build a house or canoe, &c. 
it is a common practice among the natives them¬ 
selves to make the bargain with a petty chief, who 
requires the labour of all his dependants in its 
fulfilment. They usually pay beforehand ; and 
those who have received such remuneration are 
bound, when called upon, to perform their work, 
or have their property seized, and their plantations 
plundered. 
These, and several similar regulations, are ge¬ 
nerally received, and govern the conduct of the 
