constantly employ the whole of their time in taking care of the king's and their lord's cattle: they have plenty likewise of their own. The king's cattle are marked with the stamp called chemerango. Here are such numbers of them, that it is not known within two or three thousand how many belong to him. Some of these oxen are scarcely able to walk for age, and others are so fat they cannot stir. They never milk above the fourth part of the cows, though the place is populous, and as large as some king's dominions. They have a great many towns, and many Virzimbers dwell among them. The chief town is of large extent, where the principal herdsman keeps a great court, and has full power and authority to decide all controversies, and punish any offender without appeal. When we saw him, he made as grand a figure as a king, and was sitting with his attendants about him in the same manner. However, he arose to kiss Rer Vove's knee, (not his feet,) as a testimony of his more than common respect for him. He had eight thousand head of cattle of his own, and near three hundred slaves. He made my master a present of five of his own, and fifteen of the chemango's. He seldom, if ever, goes out on foot, but is carried on a bier on men's shoulders. He is very old, indeed, having been cow-keeper to Rer Trimmonongarevo's father, deaan Lohefute.

Butter and cheese might be made here in plenty, were there but people who understood the art of it, for the cows give abundance of milk, though not altogether so much as ours do in England, but then they continue it longer; summer time in this hot country being the worst for the cattle. In this place, however, there are so many rivers, brooks, and springs, that they are never incommoded with such droughts as they sometimes are in Anterndroea. Here are tallow and hides too in abundance, but few think it worth their while to regard them. Several other commodities are to be found here which are worthy of notice :, wax is so plentiful that it is thrown away; there is iron too in many parts of the country, as well as here, and the natives are no

strangers to the making of steel. Here is copper, likewise, of their own production, of which they make mannelers. In some of the most mountainous and inland parts of the country they have silver, and know how to make ear-plates of it, and mannelers: so that I have the highest reason to think the country produces it, as well as it does a white metal, much like our British tin, or tutanag; nor is there any reason to doubt that gold is to be found here. Here are many other things, but as I cannot give a satisfactory account of them, I pass them over in silence. But,

I must not here omit to mention the several sorts of silk, of which there is plenty in every part of the island where I have been. Some is of a brownish colour, others of a white; the outside is full of small pointed prickles; the cod or bag is nearly three inches long, and shaped like a nine pin; at the top, when we take it, there is a hole, out of which I have extracted a blackish worm; but I am not able to describe it, or the manner of its transformation, as the common silkworm: this I know, that there are no mulberry trees. The silk of these worms is found upon three or four several sorts of trees; for when they spin they cleave to the thick branches or body of the tree. I have seen the people on their knees, pull the cod out to a great length, which they tease to pieces, and then spin it with a spindle, made of bone, and a rock-staff; after that they weave it as they do cotton, and it makes not only pretty, but very fine lambers. There is some trouble in the management of it, which is all the reason I can offer for their making so little use of it. In this part of Saccalauvor, where the cattle are kept, is a tree calied rofeer; which is of singular service to the middle sort of people to make lambers of. The leaf is like that of a cocoa-nut tree, but longer by two feet; they take off the outer part, and put the other to dry for two or three days together, which is then thin and white like a long shaving. After that they moisten it again, and split it into threads, which they knot in a very neat manner, and weave into cloth: some of it

is frequently dyed, and made into lambers striped. This tree bears a fruit that much resembles a damson.

After Rer Vove had taken a review of his cattle, and left behind him about two hundred of them, which he got by this journey, we returned home to plant rice; for men of the highest distinction here look after their plantations themselves, and take care to furnish their families with proper provisions. He had not been long at home, before some business called him to Moherbo, and through Guy's artifice and intercession I got leave to accompany him, for I had a strong inclination to see the Englishman. He soon perceived I was his countryman, and we were more overjoyed to see each other, than relations are who live ever so distant. His name

was William Thornbury, he had been nine years in the country. It was his first voyage; for he was then a boy, who like me, was resolutely bent on going to sea; but a hard gale of wind arising suddenly, drove their ship from her anchors, and whether some pirate was in sight, or what was the real cause he could not tell, but they never returned, leaving him with the surgeon and another man ashore; the two last in a few months died with grief, and he was left alone. The king took what small quantity of goods their captain had left on shore, and sent immediately for Thornbury. He went, and

his majesty very kindly told him he had no occasion to fear any thing; for he would take care he should not only be supplied with whatever he wanted, but that he would, moreover, send him home by the first vessel. In all which he was as good as his word, nor ever attempted to make a slave of him, as Mevarrow did of me; so that when we compared our hard destinies, mine was much the severer of the two. He went to the king's eldest wife for some toake, in order to treat me with it, which she readily granted.

I have already given the reader an idea of this king's person as to his hasty temper and cruel actions I had heard much talk of them before now; William Thornbury, however, let me more fully into his character. found, upon taking in the whole detail of him, that

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glory and ambition were his principal aim; which he looked upon to consist in the wealth and prosperity of his country. For Saccalauvor was neither richer nor more powerful than other countries till his accession to the regal state. But he having expelled both his brothers upon his assumption of the supreme dignity, one of them, as I have mentioned before, fled to Feraignher, and got possession of part of the country to the southward; the other, accoinpanied by about eight hundred men, passed through the fine country where the cattle are kept, and where the Virzimbers at that time resided, moving still farther to the northward, and settled on that river which the Europeans at this time call Masseleege. The Virzimbers fled from him on his first approach, but finding that his intentions were peaceable, and that he was only seeking a place of refuge for himself, they returned to their habitations, and lived under his jurisdiction. Here he established

a kingdom almost as extensive and powerful as his brother's; which his son, deaan Tokeoffu is now in the possession of. Rer Trimmenongarevo understanding his brother had thus happily settled himself, sent ambassadors to propose an amicable alliance between them; which he, being a good-natured man, readily came into; hoping God, and his deceased father deaan Lohefute, would forgive his brother, and for the future bless them both.

Rer Trimmonongarevo now caressed some of the Virzimbers, and gave them towns on the banks of Mernee. He was very generous likewise to his own subjects, and made considerable presents, not only of cattle, but slaves to those who had suffered losses in his service; but more especially he took all the engaging and political ways he could devise to tempt people from other countries to come and live in Saccalauvor. I have already mentioned his courteous treatment of the Feraignher people whose families had been taken in war; restoring all the captives and cattle to such masters and relations as would come and settle in his dominions. By this means they are grown not only

vastly populous, but rich, and the people live in plenty as well as peace; they reverence and adore him, in short, as a tender and indulgent father of his country. But see now the danger of submitting implicitly to the arbitary will and pleasure of any man; even though he has many useful and great virtues to recommend him. People by such means become slaves to the man who is not in every respect a hero, but attended with human frailties, and subject to passions less governable than in men of lower station. Superior greatness is his view, which explained, is advancing his prerogative beyond that of his predecessors, and showing that he can determine according to his own will more absolutely than any of his contemporaries. Absolute power is what all ambitious princes aim at, and thirst to enjoy it. This the world may see is the darling passion of the vicious great; and this was the misfortune that attended Saccalauvor; at least that part of it which was under the immediate jurisdiction of Rer Trimmonongarevo for the other lords, his sons and nephews, were as humane as those in any other part of the island; but the authority he had usurped had made him so haughty and imperious, that to show he could act as he pleased, and was not to be governed by the traditional laws, when an ambassador or any strangers were at his town, he would order some one or other of any two contending parties to immediate execution for very trivial faults, and sometimes for none at all. This barbarous disposition, however, did not appear till he was sufficiently established in his government; and then several instances of his cruelty were too conspicuous. By these vile actions he lost the love of many of his subjects, who withdrew to live under more humane sovereigns. Some quite abandoned the country, and went to his brother's son Toakoffu; though they might have been tolerably safe with his sons and nephews. And this is the only remedy which these people have against arbitrary power; for they have no notion of a jus divinum, as we call it, nor think themselves obliged by the laws of religion to suffer any impositions. The