The magnanimity of Crimacu,[14] in promising an equivalent for the damaged goods, which he was not bound to do by the customs of the Sandwich Islands, or the laws of civilized communities, gave me the highest opinion of his character. It appeared to me that he first objected to remunerate the merchant for his loss, with no other motive than to produce discussion, from which he might learn what would be done in more enlightened countries, in a similar case. He was told of the different punishments that the culprits would be subject to under the laws of America and England, but nothing could be advanced, even supposing that he was to act in accordance with the laws of those countries, to prove that the chiefs or king of the islands, were in any other way responsible for the thefts committed by individuals, than to make them stand forth and suffer in person for their offences. He remarked, that the information he received from individuals of the same country, with respect to their laws and customs, was often at variance, and so contradictory, that he was frequently at a loss to know what he should do to answer the ends of justice, and give satisfaction to the strangers who came to the islands. He declared, that the chiefs of the Sandwich Islands, wished to do like other people. Amongst those with whom we held frequent and friendly intercourse, was an Englishman, by the name of Wilkinson, who had taken passage to the Sandwich Islands, in the Frigate Blonde, when she went there with the remains of king Rio Rio, and who had banished himself from his own country to this distant region, with a view of becoming a planter of the Sandwich Islands. He had been, according to his own statement, a planter in the West Indies in early life, and subsequently on his return to England, joined a troop of horse, of which he was a captain, destined for Spain, during the war in the Peninsula, where he served for a considerable time, but at the close of the war, having left the army, and met with a reverse of fortune, he had determined to make the experiment in which he was now engaged. A bold one, it must be confessed, for a man, at the age of forty-five, and with an enfeebled constitution. Aided by Captain Byron, (who, from his high rank, and the flattering mission upon which he had been sent, was well prepared to assist him,) Mr. Wilkinson obtained from the chiefs the first deed that ever was granted by them, for two hundred acres of land. It was situated about six miles from Onavoora, on elevated ground, bordering upon a narrow valley that winds through the mountains for several miles back from the sea. The chiefs granted the deed with great reluctance, notwithstanding the respectable source from which the petition came, being extremely tenacious of that command and sovereignty of the soil, that enables them, at pleasure, to dispossess the occupant. They the more willingly relinquished the spot that Mr. Wilkinson had