P R i N c i - w a s o b l i g e d t o d e l i v e r a l l t h e p r e f e n t s h e h a d r e c e i v e d t o th e i r "
PLES OP
so c iE - L a t o o -N . i p o o r .oo i this was likewife pradtifed. by all the other.
ties. - chiefs ; the prieil. was not obliged to pay this kind o f homage or
acknowledgment o f his . fubjeftion to the great chief! Whenever
the lower ranks of people at Taheitee. Hole any valuable articles».,
the chiefs either feized the whole booty,, of at lead: feared the;
fpoils with their Toutous, though they never deprived them b y
force o f the effedts, which they received in. exchange for their,
eatables, cloth, furniture,, and implements o f war... However
we found, that after feme time, all this acquired wealth flowed?
as prefents, or voluntary acknowledgments into the treafure o f the:
various chiefs; who it. feems were the only poflefTors o f all' the-
hatchets, and broadaxes ; the ufe o f which,, they granted, to their -
fubjedts, on certain occafxons, probably for. feme acknowledgment..
What makes me more inclined to believe this circumflance, is the.
account o f the very fame cullom obferved a t the Caroline I/lands,
where the inhabitants appropriate all the iron which they find on
wrecked fhips, to their Tamoks or chiefs,, who have fuch tools
made from them, as. the fize o f the iron will admit, which they
let for a high price to their fubjedts.. * But the real: wealth o f the
natives at Taheitee, the Society-iflands, the Marquefas, the
Friendly
* Des BroiTes Hiiforie des Navigations aux Tencs aultralcs, vol. ii. p, 484.
Friendly-iflands, and even Eafter-ifland, eonfifts in the poffeflion principles
op
o f their lands, which the manahounes cultivate with the affiftance So c i e -
o f their families; whereas, the poffeffions o f their chiefs, as. well iES"
as the royal demefnes, are under the infpedtion and cultivation
o f their own toutous: they feed the hogs and dogs of their
masters, which conftitute their greatefl riches s they cultivate
the banana-trees, take care o f the bread-fruit and apple-trees,
fugar-canes, yams, eddoes, taccas, potatoes, and other ufeful
vegetables; they plant the mulberry-trees, and manufadture their
barkj lay up itores o f mahei or fower-pafte, and provide the
indolent chiefs with food and raiment. I t appears from hence,
that the real wealth and opulence o f their chiefs depends upon
the number o f toutous, as well as upon theextent o f demefne they
are poffeffed of. And that the toutou feems to be a kind o f property
o f the tribe o f chiefs, alienable according to the pleafure of the
mailer,, I colledted from the following circumilance; as fqon as
our friend Maheine had found his relations on O-Taheitee, he
was prefented by them with a.boy about 13 or 14 years old, called
Poe-tea-tea, who became to all intents and purpofes his toutou,
and was immediately remarkably attached to his new mailer and
his friends on board the (hip.
W e have already enumerated hogs and dogs among the riches
o f the natives o f Taheitee, to which we added, goats in 1773, that
B b b 2 • • had