to, what provisions we stood in need of, &c., we adjourned to the royal
habitation, which differed in no respect from the other native houses.
Yams, bread-fruit, and fish, wrapped in the plantain leaves in which
they had been cooked, were here placed before us, with cocoa-nut water
for our beverage; plantain leaves serving also as plates.

The chiefs are elected kings in rotation, and the royal office is
held for six months, but by the consent of the other chiefs, it may be
retained by the same chief for two or three years. The royal title is
Sho: the king to whom we had been introduced, as a chief, is named Mora.
We had an interview also with the former king, named Riemko; he is a
chief of high rank, and a very intelligent man: he spoke the English
language with much correctness. Being naturally of an inquisitive
disposition, and possessing an exceedingly retentive memory, he had
acquired much information; this he displayed by detailing to us many
facts connected with the history of Napoleon Buonaparte, Wellington,
&c., which had been related to him by various European visiters, and
which he appeared to retain to the most minute particulars. He surprised
us by inquiring if we resided in "Russell-square, London?"

An innate love of roaming seems to exist among these people; they
set sail without any fixed purpose in one of their large canoes:
few ever return, some probably perish, others drift on islands either
uninhabited, or if inhabited, they mingle with the natives, and tend to
produce those varieties of the human race which are so observable in the
Polynesian Archipelago. I frequently asked those of Rótuma what object
they had in leaving their fertile island to risk the perils of the deep?
the reply invariably was, "Rótuma man want to see new land:" they thus
run before the wind until they fall in with some island, or perish in
a storm. Cook and others relate numerous instances of this kind.