opriate
the articles they prize so highly. For instance, I think if any one of
the Tahaitian ladies had found an opportunity of stealing a bit of the
mock gold lace, the temptation would have been too great to withstand.
Every theft however is, on discovery, punished without distinction of
persons, and the criminal, on conviction, is generally sentenced to work
on the highway. A road has been made round the island, on which those
who have committed great transgressions, are condemned to labour; but it
is probable that neglect of prayer, or any trifling offence against the
Missionaries, would also entail this punishment upon them.

We had an opportunity of observing the severity with which theft is
punished. A complaisant husband could not resist the entreaties of his
wife, who longed for one of our sheets. One day, when the sailors were
washing in the river, he took an opportunity, unperceived as he thought,
to snatch up one of these coveted articles and run off with it. Some of
his countrymen, who had watched him, directly brought him back, bound
him to a tree, and informed me and a Missionary of the circumstance. On
reaching the spot, I already found the Judge of the district and the
Missionaries Wilson and Tyrman standing beside the thief, who was still
bound to the tree. Mr. Tyrman, who was especially bitter, could not
refrain from abuse: he called the criminal a brute, who was not worthy
to be treated as a human creature, and acted altogether as if the affair
were his. This would have surprised me, as the judge of the district was
present, and Mr. Tyrman had no official appointment on the island, but
he was a member of the Missionary Society,--_et tout est dit_. I was now
asked if I wished the offender to be whipped, as he had not the means of
paying the forfeit of three pigs to the person robbed, which the law
demands, in addition to the punishment of ignominious labour. I forgave
him the equivalent for the pigs, and begged that he might be dismissed
with a severe admonition upon the disgrace of theft, and an earnest
warning for the future. This request, however, was not granted, and the
unfortunate offender was taken away, still tied, to work on the highway:
the Judge and Mr. Wilson concurred in assuring me that he was not a
Tahaitian, but an inhabitant of another island, who had come hither with
one of the tributary kings, and declared that a Tahaitian would not have
stolen the sheet. The only article which we lo