60 GRADATIONS OF RANK. 



am disposed to consider them as threefold, — princi- 

 pally patriarchal, partly hereditary, and partly priestly. 

 There is, at the same time, no doubt that only 

 certain individuals were recognised as of a higher 

 condition, and these were much disposed to deny — at 

 any rate, to us — the pretensions of their fellows, while 

 they enlarged upon their own ; and in this, those who 

 by serfdom or inclination owned their individual 

 importance, supported their statements. 



Of all whose position it gave us the greatest 

 trouble to determine, AkouU was certainly pre-eminent; 

 and it must be confessed that as a diplomatist he 

 far outstripped his comrades. Undoubtedly he was 

 a very clever fellow, I believe that even upon his 

 first visit to the ship, while we were yet in the bay, 

 his line of conduct was decided upon. With the 

 comprehensive glance and intuitive appreciation of a 

 politician, he instantly divined, from the nature of our 

 society, the deference paid to our chiefs, and the 

 desire displayed to discover the leaders of his own 

 party, the great benefit which must accrue to the 

 seeming or actual possession of rank ; and so v^dth 

 equal assurance and astuteness he at once placed 

 himself foremost among them; and, although sub- 

 sequent circumstances led us to doubt the correctness 

 of his presumptions, he had so adroitly succeeded 



