; they have no ambition to join their more restless and
enterprising countrymen, who have made themselves masters of Alorie
and Raka, nor even to meddle in the private or public concerns of
their near neighbours of Keeshee. Indeed, they have kept themselves
apart and distinct from all; they have retained the language of their
fathers, and the simplicity of their manners, and their existence
glides serenely and happily away, in the enjoyment of domestic
pleasures and social tenderness, which are not always found in
civilized society, and which are unknown among their roving
countrymen. They are on the best possible terms with their neighbours
like the Fellatas at Bohoo and by them are held in great respect.

The governor of Keeshee was a Borgoo man, and boasted of being the
friend of Yarro, chief of Kiama, but as the old man told them many
wonderful stories of the number of towns under his sway, his amazing
great influence, and the entire subjection in which his own people
were kept by his own good government, all of which was listened to
with patience; they were inclined to believe that the pretensions of
the governor were as hollow as they were improbable. As to his
government, he gave them a specimen of it, by bawling to a group of
children that had followed their steps into the yard, ordering them
to go about their business. But every one in this country displayed
the same kind of ridiculous vanity, and in the majority of towns
which they visited, it was the first great care of their chiefs, to
impress on their minds an idea of their vast importance, which in
many instances was contradicted by their ragged tobes and squalid
appearance. Yet, if their own accounts were to be credited, their
affluence and power were unbounded. All truth is sacrificed to this
feeling of vanity and vain glory; and considering that in most cases
they hold truth in great reverence, they render themselves truly
ridiculous by their absurd practice of boasting; every circumstance
around them tending to contradict it. In the case of the Landers,
however, these toasters had to deal with strangers, and with white
men, and perhaps it may be considered as natural, amongst simple
barbarians, to court admiration and applause, even if no other means
were employed than falsehood and exaggeration. After a deal of
talking, tending to no particular subject, from which any useful
information could be obtained, the governor of Keeshee begged the
favour of