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 lost besides this, was an iron hoop from a barrel, and as the thief was not discovered, it remained undecided whether their assertion was well-grounded or not. At all events, it appears certain that thefts do not take place oftener than among civilized nations.