which circumstances, if they do not amount to proofs, are strong
indications that the power of the chiefs, where property is concerned, is
not arbitrary, but at least so far circumscribed and ascertained, as to
make it worth the while for the inferior orders to cultivate the soil, and
to occupy their possessions distinct from each other.

With respect to the administration of justice, all the information we could
collect was very imperfect and confined. Whenever any of the lowest class
of people had a quarrel amongst themselves, the matter in dispute was
referred to the decision of some chief, probably the chief of the district,
or the person to whom they appertained. If an inferior chief had given
cause of offence to one of a higher rank, the feelings of the latter at the
moment seemed the only measure of his punishment. If he had the good
fortune to escape the first transports of his superior's rage, he generally
found means, through the mediation of some third person, to compound for
his crime by a part or the whole of his property and effects. These were
the only facts that came to our knowledge on this head.

The religion of these people resembles, in most of its principal features,
that of the Society and Friendly Islands. Their _morais_, their _whattas_,
their idols, their sacrifices, and their sacred songs, all of which they
have in common with each other, are convincing proofs that their religious
notions are derived from the same source. In the length and number of their
ceremonies, this branch indeed far exceeds the rest; and though in all
these countries there is a certain class of men, to whose care the
performance of their religious rites is committed, yet we never met with a
regular society of priests, till we discovered the cloisters of Kakooa in
Karakakooa Bay. The head of this order was called _Orono_; a title which we
imagined to imply something highly sacred, and which, in the person of
Omeeah, was honoured almost to adoration. It is probable, that the