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Where there is no civil law, or any kind of substitute for it, each man
is, as it were, a nation in himself; and then the traveller ought to be
guided in his actions by the motives that influence nations, whether to
make war or to abstain from it, rather than by the criminal code of
civilised countries. The traveller must settle in his own mind what his
scale of punishments should be; and it will be found a convenient
principle that a culprit should be punished in proportion to the quantity
of harm that he has done, rather than according to the presumed
wickedness of the offence. Thus, if two men were caught, one of whom had
stolen an ox, and the other a sheep, it would be best to flog the first
much more heavily than the second; it is a measure of punishment more
intelligible to savages than ours. The principle of double or treble
restitution, to which they are well used, is of the same nature. If all
theft be punished, your administration will be a reign of terror; for
every savage, even your best friends, will pilfer little things from you,
whenever they have a good opportunity. Be very severe if any of your own
party steal trifles from natives: order double or treble restitution, if
the man does not know better; and, if he does, a flogging besides, and
not in place of it.
Seizing Food.--On arriving at an encampment, the natives commonly run
away in fright.
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