270 cook's first voyage SEPT. 



them, and as to the muskets, though they were clean 

 on the outside, they were eaten into holes by the 

 rust within ; and the people themselves appeared to 

 be so little acquainted with military discipline, that 

 they marched like a disorderly rabble, every one 

 having, instead of his target, a cock, some tobacco, 

 or other merchandise of the like kind, which he took 

 that opportunity to bring down to sell, and few or 

 none of their cartridge boxes were furnished with 

 either powder or ball, though a piece of paper was 

 thrust into the hole to save appearances. We saw a 

 few swivel guns and paterarosat the town-house, and 

 a great gun before it ; but the swivels and pateraros 

 lay out of their carriages, and the great gun lay upon 

 a heap of stones, almost consumed with rust, with 

 the touch-hole downwards, possibly to conceal its 

 size, which might perhaps be little less than that of 

 the bore. 



We could not discover that among these people 

 there was any rank of distinction between the raja 

 and the land-owners : the land-owners were respect- 

 able in proportion to their possessions ; the inferior 

 ranks consist of manufacturers, labouring poor, and 

 slaves. The slaves, like the peasants in some parts 

 of Europe, are connected with the estate, and both 

 descend together ; but though the land-owner can 

 sell his slave, he has no other power over his person, 

 not even to correct him, without the privity and ap- 

 probation of the raja. Some have five hundred of 

 these slaves, and some not half a dozen: the com- 

 mon price of them is a fat hog. When a great man 

 goes out, he is constantly attended by two or more 

 of them : one of them carries a sword or hanger, the 

 hilt of which is commonly of silver, and adorned with 

 large tassels of horse hair ; and another carries a bag 

 which contains betel, areca, lime, and tobacco. In 

 these attendants consists all their magnificence, for 

 the raja himself has no other mark of distinction. 



The chief object of pride among these people, like 



