PRiNci- royal family, have likewife grants o f land. Th e chiefs of the pro-
PLES OP
s q c i e vinces, as well as the inferior Arees, have their demefnes culti-
t i r s . vated by Toutous, .who are obliged to-.raife fruits and roots, for
the necefl'ary food of their Aree 5 to fifih, to build hpufes and canoes,
to make cloth, to work their boats in war and peace, and to
do every thing they bid them: and for this fervice they have the-
overplus o f fruit and fifti ; which latter, the chief commonly d if-
tributes among all his vaffals, very impartially.; i f they catch a
confiderable quantity at once. T h e Manahoune, his brethren, • and
offspring, cultivate the ground, which is granted to them ; and I
cannot fay, that I ever obferved Toutous attached to them. In- war
time, the great chief, with the advice o f his relations; and o f the
chiefs o f the provinces, who Teem to have great influence in public
affairs, orders an armament to. be prepared-; and as the Ihores
only are inhabited, the . attack commonly is made by lea : for that
realon they have numbers, o f war-canoes, built and laid up under
large Iheds, which-are immediately fitted out upon any fuch re-
quifition, from the Lord Paramount; each inferior chief and Manahoune
is again either mailer o f fuch a war-canoe, or he does fervice
on board o f one. o f them, as a warrior,, and the Toutous -ars
employed in paddling .and working them. T h e chiefs o f provinces
regulate every thing in their difbri<£ts, and adminifter ju f-
tice, their authority being as great as that of the king. On extraordinary
H U M A N S P E C I E S. 357
nary occafions, however, the king interpofes his authority ; thus I p k in c i -
‘ . . . ples oe
heard Oree, king o f Huaheine, order his Ho a * to go into a diftridt Socie-
■ ofanother chief, and bid him tell fuch were the words o f the TIES-
Aree-rahai; to apprehend the thieves, and feize the llolen goods;
which he enumerated; the goods were in part reftored the fame
day, and the next day he was ready to punilh the thieves in our
prefence-, had we not already been too far out at fea, and had we at.
fit-ft well underftood his meaning. A t O-Taheitee we faw the review
o f the naval armaments o f two diftridts, which were deltined
to fubdue a great revolted vaffal, or feudal lord, on the- ille o f
Imto, in the diftridt o f Moreau and we were, told, that- every
chief o f a diftria mull fend his quota towards this expedition ;
and even the great chief o f O-Taheitee-eetee, or Tiarraboo, would
join in it as his duty required. O-Too,. perhaps, not being well
enough Ikilled in the noble art o f war.; was- not intended to command
the fleet, and therefore gave the dignity o f high-admiral to
T-Owha, chief of Atahooroo; though he told us at the fame
time, that he would likewife be in tbe fleet, in the quality o f a
warrior-, or as we might call it, of a knight. Thefe circumftances
fufficiently prove, that their, government is. a kind: o f feudal fyllem ;
but it has much of that original patriarchal, form, blended with it,
which redtifies, the many defedts.of the feudal government, and for
that
* Hba Egnifics a friend, or chief-attendant on the king;-we fhould call him a Ur,lin twit-
lag, of which the king of Taheitce has a.good number, doing duty in their, turns,.