m. To accomplish this, he ordered a deep
channel to be dug fifteen miles long; and that the natives might not
think he treated them like slaves, he not only forced the inhabitants,
but also his own soldiers, to labour in carrying it on. As he set a vast
number of men to work, he beyond all men's expectations brought it to a
speedy conclusion. And his neighbours who at first laughed at the folly
of the undertaking, no sooner saw it brought to perfection, than they
were struck with admiration and terror.

There are fifty-four cities in the island, all large and well built: the
manners, customs, and laws of which are the same, and they are all
contrived as near in the same manner as the ground on which they stand
will allow. The nearest lie at least twenty-four miles distance from one
another, and the most remote are not so far distant, but that a man can
go on foot in one day from it, to that which lies next it. Every city
sends three of their wisest senators once a year to Amaurot, to consult
about their common concerns; for that is chief town of the island, being
situated near the centre of it, so that it is the most convenient place
for their assemblies. The jurisdiction of every city extends at least
twenty miles: and where the towns lie wider, they have much more ground:
no town desires to enlarge its bounds, for the people consider
themselves rather as tenants than landlords. They have built over all
the country, farmhouses for husbandmen, which are well contrived, and
are furnished with all things necessary for country labour. Inhabitants
are sent by turns from the cities to dwell in them; no country family
has fewer than forty men and women in it, besides two slaves. There is a
master and a mistress set over every family; and over thirty families
there is a magistrate. Every year twenty of this family come back to the
town, after they have stayed two years in the country; and in their
room there are other twenty sent from the town, that they may learn
country work from those that have been already one year in the country,
as they must teach those that come to them the next from the town. By
this means such as dwell in those country farms are never ignorant of
agriculture, and so commit no errors, which might otherwise be fatal,
and bring them under a scarcity of corn. But though there is every year
such a shifting of the husbandmen, to prevent any man being forced
against his will to follow that hard course of life