dislike their manners and appearance, it might
lead to some serious calamity, if he continued
to refuse to give them an audience.
I accordingly waited upon the Brigade
Major, and explained to him how unwise it
was to treat these men with such undisguised
contempt. The result was, the Governor saw
the affair in the same point of view as myself,
and condescended to meet them and converse
with them for about five minutes; and with
that they were satisfied. Other heads of departments
(civil and military) behaved differently,
and evidently felt a pleasure in having
them with them. The Commander of the
troops suffered them to sit at the same table
with himself and officers, and had the war-
dance performed in the mess-room, which I
thought would have brought the house down
upon our heads. He likewise permitted them
to fall into the ranks with the soldiers, which
pleased them beyond every thing, inasmuch
as they considered it a higher honour in being
permitted to stand by our warriors on the
martial parade, than to take food with our
Chiefs at their own table!
The Attorney-general of the colony took a
particular interest in these savages, and gave
a large party, to which they were invited.
Several of the visiters on this occasion came
out of curiosity to see how these cannibals
would conduct themselves ; expecting, no
doubt, to witness a display of disgusting
gluttony ; but in that they were disappointed,
for never did any set of men behave with
greater decorum than they did.
On being apprised of this invitation, they
were all most anxious to obtain European
dresses ; and when we refused to lend them
ours, they requested of our servants the loan
of a suit. This being denied them also, with
the little money they had, they attempted to
bargain for whole suits of convict dresses, in
order to make their début in style at the table
of the Attorney-general ! When I discovered
this to be the case, I explained to them the
impropriety of their conduct, and roused their
pride by pointing out to them the absurdity
of men of their high rank in their own country,
wishing to appear in the cast-off dress of degraded
slaves ; and how much more suitable