As To His Government, He Gave Them A Specimen Of It, By Bawling To A Group Of Children That Had Followed Their Steps Into The Yard, Ordering Them To Go About Their Business.

But every one in this country displayed the same kind of ridiculous vanity, and in the majority of towns

Which they visited, it was the first great care of their chiefs, to impress on their minds an idea of their vast importance, which in many instances was contradicted by their ragged tobes and squalid appearance. Yet, if their own accounts were to be credited, their affluence and power were unbounded. All truth is sacrificed to this feeling of vanity and vain glory; and considering that in most cases they hold truth in great reverence, they render themselves truly ridiculous by their absurd practice of boasting; every circumstance around them tending to contradict it. In the case of the Landers, however, these toasters had to deal with strangers, and with white men, and perhaps it may be considered as natural, amongst simple barbarians, to court admiration and applause, even if no other means were employed than falsehood and exaggeration. After a deal of talking, tending to no particular subject, from which any useful information could be obtained, the governor of Keeshee begged the favour of a little rum and medicine to heal his foot, which was inclined to swell and give him pain; and another request which he made was, that they would repair a gun, which had been deprived of its stock by fire.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 814 of 1124
Words from 223044 to 223300 of 309561