ngland. They are
in good condition, clean, sufficiently furnished, and well ventilated.
Granted that the materials of which they are built are cheap, that from
the fertility of the land a man by labouring three days in the week can
supply all his wants for the remaining four, and has time to repair his
house and furniture, and that he has no rates and taxes to pay, still I
cannot help believing that there is something wrong somewhere, that God
never intended it to be so, and that it is a matter it behoves us to
look to more than we have done. Though distance seemed to increase my
love for Old England, it did not blind me to her faults, and I often
blushed when I found myself among heathen savages, and saw the
superiority of some of their ways to ours. These or similar thoughts
occupied me while I stood on the terrace gazing on the fine prospect
around, and waiting for the appearance of the chief.

After some time the chief appeared at the entrance of the hall of
audience, with a gay coloured umbrella borne over his head, a slave
carrying the indispensable betel-box by his side, a handsome turban on
his head, and his sash stuck full of jewel-hilted daggers with golden
scabbards, while all his attendants stood round with their bodies bent
forward and their eyes cast to the ground, as a sign of reverence. I
thus knew that I was in the presence of a very important person. I was
rather puzzled to discover who he took me for, that he treated me with
so much state. How we were to understand each other, and I was to
ascertain the truth, I could not tell. I think I mentioned that I
learned a little Dutch, which I had practised occasionally with Peter
Klopps, my old cousin's butler.

I tried the chief with some complimentary phrases in that language, but
he shook his head; I then tried him with French. He shook his head
still more vehemently, and, from the signs he made, I thought that he
was annoyed that I had not brought an interpreter with me. After a
time, however, finding that he could get nothing out of me, he said
something to one of his attendants, who, raising his hands with his
palms closed till his thumbs touched his nose in rather a curious
fashion, uttered a few words in reply, and then hurried off by the way I
had come. I was after this conducted into the hall, where on a raised
platform the chief took his seat, making signs to me to sit near him,
his attendants having done the same. Slaves then brought