to whom the people seem to pay
great obedience. I also observed a third rank, who had not a little
authority over the common people; my friend Attago was one of these. I am
of opinion that all the land on. _Tongatabu_ is private property, and
that there are here, as at Otaheite, a set of people, who are servants or
slaves, and have no property in land. It is unreasonable to suppose every
thing in common in a country so highly cultivated as this. Interest being
the greatest spring which animates the hand of industry, few would toil in
cultivating and planting the land, if they did not expect to reap the fruit
of their labour: Were it otherwise, the industrious man would be in a worse
state than the idle sluggard. I frequently saw parties of six, eight, or
ten people, bring down to the landing place fruit and other things to
dispose of, where one person, a man or woman, superintended the sale of the
whole; no exchanges were made but with his or her consent; and whatever we
gave in exchange was always given them, which I think plainly shewed them
to be the owners of the goods, and the others no more than servants. Though
benevolent nature has been very bountiful to these isles, it cannot be said
that the inhabitants are wholly exempt from the curse of our forefathers:
Part of their bread must be earned by the sweat of their brows. The high
state of cultivation their lands are in, must have cost them immense
labour. This is now amply rewarded by the great produce, of which every one
seems to partake. No one wants the common necessaries of life; joy and
contentment are painted in every face. Indeed, it can hardly be otherwise;
an easy freedom prevails among all ranks of people; they feel no wants
which they do not enjoy the means of gratifying; and they live in a clime
where the painful extremes of heat and cold are equally unknown. If nature
has been wanting in any thing, it is in the article of fresh water, which
as it is shut up in the bowels of the earth, they are obliged to dig for. A
running stream was not seen, and but one well, at Amsterdam. At Middleburg,
we saw no water but what the natives had in vessels; but as it was sweet
and cool, I had no doubt of its being taken up upon the island; and
probably not far from the spot where I saw it.

So little do we know of their religion, that I hardly dare mention it. The
buildings called _Afiatoucas_, before mentioned, are undoubtedly set
apart for this purpose. Some of our