of individuals put to death by the chiefs for alleged acts of theft; but in every case of this kind which is mentioned, the person punished is, we believe, a slave. We have observed no instance, noted, in which the crime in question was punished, either with death or in any other way, when committed by one “cookee” on the property of another; and it is abundantly evident, from many things which are stated, that the natives themselves really do not con sider the act as implying, in ordinary cases, that moral turpitude which we generally impute to it. In one case which Marsden mentions, the brother of a chief, named Ahoudee Ogunna,* con ceiving himself to have been improperly treated by one of the missionaries, stole two earthen pots from another of them; but the explanation which the chief gave of the matter was that his brother had not stolen the pots, but had only taken them away with an intention to bring on an explanation respecting the conduct which had given him offence. The man’s expectation here evidently was that his theft (if it was to be so called) would merely have the effect of making the missionaries as angry as he himself was, and so of rendering both parties equally anxious for a full discussion of their differences. He had himself, as he conceived, been affronted in a manner not to be passed over; and his ♦This is the man referred to in a previous chapter, who signed a deed of sale to Marsden by the pattern of his tattoo.