218 FROM THE ST. LAWREl^CE ISLANDS 



pression on the savages, on this solemn occasion* 

 After we had been waiting for some time, he at 

 last came out of the house, with measured paces -, 

 he had put on a white shirt, a sabre buckled round 

 his waist which he held naked in his right hand, 

 and his head covered with a straw hat. The 

 Radackers were astonished when they saw him 

 enter with a serious countenance with his mur- 

 derous weapon, and he sat down with much 

 gravity on the branch of a tree. The sun had 

 already set when Kadu made the following speech, 

 in which he had been tutored. I must previously ob- 

 serve that Kadu, from our accounts, had formed a 

 very high idea of the tamon of Russia, of whom 

 he told the Radackers a great deal. " The great 

 tamon of all tamons,'* said he, " of the land of 

 Russia, has commanded that Kadu shall remain 

 here, to take care of the plants and animals left 

 here by the Russians. Nobody dare hinder him on 

 pain of death ; on the contrary, every inhabitant 

 shall assist him to cultivate the land, for which he 

 is to be rewarded ;" though the promised rewards 

 were to arise from their labour itself. I also per- 

 mitted myself the following fiction, in order to give 

 more weight to the speech : " A large ship will 

 come from Russia in ten months, to bring the 

 Radackers iron, and other necessary articles; but if 

 it finds that the plantations are destroyed, the guilty 

 persons will be punished with death ! Let nobody 

 venture to rob Kadu, or to do him any injury ; 



