attired in petticoats of white tapa cloth, which hung down in strips
from a girdle round their waists.

Before trusting ourselves among these savages we gave them, as peace
offerings, coloured beads and bright pieces of cloth. Our presents were
well received, but immediately on becoming possessed of them the
natives laid them at the feet of a young man who stood apart from the
crowd, surrounded by several tall and fierce-looking savages. From this
we concluded the young man to be the king of the country, though we
wondered he should be so young, as the leadership amongst savages
generally goes to the strongest.

We then showed the natives our water-casks, and, pointing to a stream
close by, made them understand we desired to fill them, to which they
offered no objection, so that we at once began to water the ship. When
we had finished our task we were invited by signs to go to the king,
and, being well armed against treachery, we boldly marched up in a body
to the king's house, which we found to be an immense building, nearly
300 feet long and 30 feet wide. It had a high peaked portico, supported
by posts 80 feet high, from which a thatched roof narrowed and tapered
away to the end, where it reached the level of the ground. The house
resembled nothing so much as an enormous telescope, and here the king
lived with his numerous wives and families, together with all his
relatives and immediate retainers.

From the knowledge I had picked up on my travels, particularly during
the time I was captive among the black cannibals of New Holland, I had
acquired the art of understanding, either by words or signs, what
savage people wished, by their language, to convey, which to most would
have been unintelligible, and from what I could gather it appeared that