singular usage connected with the law of primogeniture CHAP. II in that and some other of the surrounding islands. This Singular law was the abdication of the throne by the reigning sove- of abdication. reign as soon as his first son was born; and whatever might be his age, his influence in the state, or the aspect of political affairs, the moment the heir came into the world, he relapsed into a subject; the babe was proclaimed the master of the people; the royal name was conferred upon him; and the father was the first to acknowledge his supreme power by kissing his feet and pronouncing his title. A public herald was then despatched round the island with the flag of the infant monarch, which being unfurled at the proper places, the accession was duly proclaimed. If this emblem was allowed to pass, the chiefs were understood to concur in the expediency of the measure which it announced; but if the banner was insulted by them, or the bearer impeded in his progress, their conduct was regarded as an act of rebellion, or even as an open declaration of war.

king by his

Vancouver relates that he witnessed the ceremony of homage paid to Otoo, Pomare the Second, by his grand- Homage to a father. A pig and a plaintain leaf were instantly pro- grandfather. cured, the old man stripped to the waist, and when the boy appeared in front of the marquee, the aged parent, whose limbs were tottering under the weight of years, met his grandson, and on his knees acknowledged his own inferiority by presenting this token of submission; which, so far as could be discovered, was offered with a mixture of profound respect and paternal regard. The ceremony seemed to have little effect on the young monarch, who appeared to notice the humble posture of his grandsire with the most perfect indifference. This mode of behaviour, the navigator remarks, is to be attributed to the force of education rather than to a want of the proper sentiments of affection.*

* Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the World, performed in the years 1790. 1795 (3 vols 4to, Lond. 1798), vol. i. p. 109.

CHAP. II.

It is deserving of notice, that, notwithstanding the relinquishment of sovereign power, every important affair, whether foreign or domestic, was transacted by the old king and those who had been formerly associated with Government him as his counsellors. But all edicts and official deeds by regency. were issued in the name and behalf of the royal child, for whom, in point of fact, his father directed the government in the capacity of regent. Nor was this singular principle of succession confined to the family of the monarch. It prevailed likewise among those orders which correspond to what in civilized countries we should call the nobility and gentry-the arii and the raatirasand in both these classes the first-born son, immediately after his birth, received the honours, the titles, and possessions which had till that moment been enjoyed by his parent. There is no small difficulty in the attempt to discover the origin and design of a usage so singular; and unless we adopt the conjecture of one of the most learned among the missionaries, we shall certainly not arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. He supposes that it arose from a wish on the part of powerful families to secure to the next heir an undisputed succession to the dignity and power of his ancestors; and if this was the object of the practice at its original institution, no one can doubt that it was well adapted to realize its purpose. The youth was firmly fixed in his government or estates before his natural protectors had lost the power of asserting his rights to the inheritance.*

Distinction of ranks.

In a state of society very little raised above barbarism, one is not prepared to find so minute a distinction of ranks as prevails in Polynesia, more especially among the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, whose government is said to be more despotic than that of any tribe on the southern side of the equator. This distribution

Ellis' Polynesian Researches, vol. iii. p. 101. It is added that the lands and other sources of the king's support were appropriated to the household establishment of the infant ruler; and the father rendered to him those demonstrations of inferi ority which he himself was wont to require from the people.

of the people into certain orders, marked by distinct lines CHAP. II. of separation, has been regarded as a proof of their descent from the Asiatic continent, where the institution of caste appears in all the solidity of an ancient system; for though the degrees which measure rank in the South Sea may not be so numerous as those in India, the approach from one grade to another is rendered hardly less difficult. The higher classes are described as being remarkably tenacious of their dignity, and exceedingly jealous of such contamination as might arise from a matrimonial union with their inferiors.

Society in that part of the world seems to consist of Three orders of society three orders; the royal family and nobles; the proprietors of land who employ themselves in cultivating it; and, lastly, the common people. These orders, again, are subdivided according to their several gradations. The lowest class includes the servants and slaves; the latter being persons who may have lost their liberty in an unsuccessful battle, or who, in consequence of the downfal of the chieftain to whom they were attached, had become the dependents of another. This species of servitude appears to have existed among them from the most ancient times. Individuals taken in actual combat, or those who, when disabled in the field, had courted the protection of a great warrior, have always been considered the lawful slaves of him into whose hands they fell. In such cases, the women and children, sharing the fate of their vanquished kinsmen, become the property of the conqueror, or are transferred with the lands to his subordinate chiefs.

Captives and There is no reason to believe that the Polynesians common ever carried on a traffic in slaves, though they retained people. over their captives the power of life and death, and might even offer them in sacrifice to their gods. If peace continued, the prisoner often regained his liberty after a short servitude, and was then allowed either to return to his own people or to remain a voluntary servant with his new master. This mild species of slavery, incident to a rude condition of society, has prevailed more or less

CHAP. II. in all nations, whether in the east or west. Among the savages of North America, the enemies taken in war might either be adopted into the victorious tribe, to supply the loss sustained in a battle, or murdered under the most cruel torture, to satiate the revenge of the victors, or to appease the angry spirits of the slain.

Land owners

Kings and nobles.

The second class, called the bue raatira, comprehending the great body of the landowners who are not noble, have at all times been regarded as the main strength of the country. They hold their property on a tenure quite independent of the royal pleasure, and, in many cases, can boast that it has descended to them through a long line of ancestors. Some of them in their habits and possessions bear a certain resemblance to the old yeomen of England; dressing their own fields, improving their own plantations, building their own houses, and paying without a grudge their stated dues to the crown. The owners of more extensive estates constitute the real aristocracy of the country, and enjoy no small influence in its government. They are, generally speaking, regular, temperate, and industrious in their manner of life, and are found, on most occasions, to impose a restraint on the hasty measures of the king, who, without their aid, could not carry any important matters. As their means are ample, the number of their retainers is great in proportion; and hence the weight which they exercise in public affairs during peace as well as in war.

The highest class, or the hui arii, includes the sovereign, the immediate members of his family, and even all who are related to him in the most distant degree. This section of the inhabitants, though not numerous, enjoy great consideration; and their dignity is protected with much jealousy, not only by themselves, but by the people at large, who have been taught to regard their own honour as identified with the purity of the reigning house. Perhaps, also, this feeling may be partly ascribed to the very obvious policy of limiting within the narrowest bounds the number of individuals whose privileges, as a sacred order, might be felt incon

venient. But the arii, we are assured, are not less de- CHAP. II. sirous to maintain unchallenged the grounds of their high distinction, and to hand it down uncontaminated to their offspring. With this view, whenever a matrimonial connexion takes place between one of them and an individual of inferior rank, the children are destroyed. Though the king succeeds to his office at the hour of Inauguration of kings his birth, a period is fixed for his inauguration. This ceremony takes place when he assumes the government in his own person, and is usually celebrated with much rude magnificence, not unmixed with the rites of a cruel idolatry. The details are given at considerable length by the missionaries; but to a reader unaccustomed to the mystical language and grotesque forms of the pageant, these are necessarily in a great measure unintelligible. The substance of this state solemnity consists in investing the sovereign with the maro, or girdle of red feathers, which at once raises him to the highest earthly station, and gives him a place among the celestial progenitors of his race. Vancouver relates that a change of language, to some extent, was introduced whenever a young ruler obtained the belt of royalty; applying as well to the names of the chiefs as to forty or fifty of the most common words. As might be expected, the new terms pro- Change of langunge at duced a very material difference in those family-tables inauguraof affinity preserved among the higher class, and which tions are said to be constructed with great attention. Later writers make no mention of this innovation in style, whence we may conclude, that it was confined to the island in which he witnessed it, or that he did not fully comprehend the information he received. He adds, indeed, that the perplexities connected with the narrative were materially increased by the difficulty of obtaining the truth from men who have a constant desire to avoid giving offence even in the slightest degree.*

Such were the exalted notions entertained of regal authority at the court of Otaheite; and the phraseology

• Vancouver, vol. i. p. 135. Ellis, vol. iii. p. 112.