and their cloth, were left unguarded, without
the smallest apprehensions. I have already remarked, that they not only
separate their possessions by walls in the plain country, but that, in
the woods likewise, wherever the horse-plantains grow, they make use of
small white flags in the same manner, and for the same purpose of
discriminating property, as they do bunches of leaves at Otaheite. All
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."[22] Yet
on the other hand we are told by later writers that "in fact, the
condition of the common people is that of slaves; they hold nothing
which may not be taken from them by the strong hand of arbitrary power,
whether exercised by the sovereign or a petty chief." On one occasion
the writers saw nearly two thousand persons, laden with faggots of
sandal-wood, coming down from the mountains to deposit their burdens in
the royal store-houses, and then departing to their homes, weary with
their unpaid labours, yet without a murmur at their bondage.[23] When at
last, through contact with civilisation, they had learned to utter their
grievances, they complained that "the people was crushed by the numerous
forced labours and contributions of every sort exacted from them by the
chiefs. It was, indeed, very hard to furnish the chiefs, on every
requisition, with pigs, food, and all the good things which the folk
possessed, and to see the great despoiling the humble. In truth, the
people worked for the chiefs incessantly, they performed every kind of
painful task, and they paid the chiefs all the taxes which it pleased
them to demand."[24]

[19] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 413.

[20] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 417. Compare J. J. Jarves, _op.
cit._ p. 34.

[21] A. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 169. As to the length of
Campbell's residence in Wahoo (Oahu), see _id._, p. 153 note.
The date of his residence was 1809-1810. Compare O. von
Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's
Straits_ (London, 1821), iii. 246: "The people are almost
subject to the arbitrary will of the lord, but there are no
slaves or vassals (_glebae adscripti_). The peasant and the