is made: the place becomes free, and great rejoicings ensue.

When these prohibitions are removed from a whole district, the chief makes a public entertainment, similar to an European fair, and every person carries home something, to show that he has been there. Numerous presents are distributed on these occasions, but it is seldom that any whole article falls to the share of an individual; for they are all rent in pieces, and he who obtains the largest piece is esteemed the best man. He who first catches a hog carries him off, and if several members of a fa mily carry off a cance, it becomes their property.

The articles intended for distribution and for sport, are all brought into one large spot, and the servants of the chief keep hold of the hogs, goats, and fowls, until the time appointed for the sport of letting them loose, to be caught by those of greatest strength and agility.

In the scale of rank, birth holds a particular eminence. A chief always retains his dignity; and although he should lose his command, be expelled from his district, or have his honours transferred to his child, still he continues noble and respected..... But the road to eminence is open only to the lower ranks in the improved state of society; no mental endowments, therefore, nor any acquisitions whatever, can raise a man above the rank of a gentleman, in these uncultivated regions. It is alleviating, however, to add, that even the meanest are subjected to no slavish dependance.

The lowest class in society resemble European cottagers and their principal employments are to

cultivate the land, to build houses, to make cloth, and aid in any laborious employment; but their service is voluntary. They may change their chief, at pleasure, and repair to another district, but still they remain in a servile state.

Custom appears to operate more than the fear of punishment, in support of authority. For even the chief admits all to be his companions; and such freedoms are used, that in respect of external appearance, he can scarcely be distinguished. The king himself often converses with the meanest of his subjects, and condescends to visit them. His retinue receive no wages, and they may leave his service at pleasure; some, however, remain in his family during life.

Experience proves, that in the more simple state of men, the selfish and more sordid passions are not so predominant. It is therefore an undeniable fact, that in the uncultivated parts of Europe, generosity and frienship reign with more universal sway than in the more refined circles: and human nature displaying her usual efforts, appears all friendly and generous in the islands of the South Seas. There the inhabitants are profuse in their presents, and can scarcely refuse any thing that is solicited from them.

Almost under every government, indigence exposes to neglect and a certain degree of reproach; but among this people, poverty never renders a man contemptible; and to be affluent, and at the same time avaricious, clothes a man with universal infamy and disgrace; nay, should any individual refuse to part with his provisions in time of necessity,

his neighbours would suddenly rise against him, and destroy all his property. And such is the strength of generosity, or the force of custom, that they will even part with their clothes, rather than be deemed avaricious.

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This disposition in the southern mind operates strongly in respect of property. Tradition and landmarks supply the place of written records. Every man knows his own property, and he who should presume to encroach upon that of his neighbour would be considered as the basest of characters.... When a man bequeaths his property to another upon his death-bed, witnesses prove the legacy, and it is held sacred. The property is equally secure in the absence as in the presence of the heir. The land-marks set by their ancestors speak a language that no man dares to resist. The father points out to the son the land-marks; and should any dispute arise concering their decay or removal, multitudes are ready to prove the fact. Similar is the case in all disputes, for the matter is referred to a neutral person; and he who is declared in the wrong submits, and makes the offended an offering of a plaintain-stalk.

They seldom fight in consequence of a personal quarrel; for when any serious offence is given, the family usually espouses the quarrel. When the offender is not disposed to fight, he is constrained to present an offering, which is always accepted..... Nor is it wonderful, that frequent battles ensue in consequence of very trivial offences. It is not the intrinsic nature of the crime, so much as the point of view in which it is seen, that enflames the human

passions. A small affront or neglect shown to a child immediately interests the mother; who seizes a shark's tooth, and lacerates her flesh, until either the peace-offering is brought, or the injury severely revenged. In such cases, it sometimes happens that the relatives upon both sides contend, and much blood is shed.

CHAP. IX.

OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Discovery of and subsequent visits to the Sandwich Islands.

PREVIOUS to Captain Cook's arrival at the Sandwich Islands, the use of iron was not unknown to their inhabitants; which circumstance occasioned a supposition that they must have been visited anterior to their discovery in 1778. This, however, might have been accounted for by an occurrence by no means unfrequent, that of a wreck at sea, where parts of the vessel, many of which have been seen in the islands of the Pacific, might have been washed on their shores.

But the voyage of discovery undertaken by M. de la Perouse who touched at these islands in May 1787, has confirmed the honour of their discovery to the Spaniards; and has established the certainty that the islands called in the Spanish charts Los Majos, and Santa Maria de la Gorta, laid down in the map of Lieutenant Roberts, from 18 deg. 30 min. to 28 deg. north lat. and from 135 to 149 deg. west long. are the same with those which have since received the name of the Sandwich Islands, in honour of the Earl of Sandwich who was first