246 THEIR GRATITUDE. 



in them, and the traveller having changed his wet and 

 disorderly apparel for a clean and dry suit, may proceed 

 to cook his provisions. The nearest bamboo bush will 

 furnish him with an excellent candlestick, and the 

 rattan will answer all the purposes of a corkscrew, if 

 the benighted wayfarer be fortunate enough to have 

 occasion for its services. 



Gratitude, which is too frequently found a rare and 

 transitory virtue, eminently adorns the character of these 

 simple people, and the smallest benefit conferred upon 

 them, calls forth its vigorous and continued exercise. 

 It cannot, then, be wondered at, that this amiable quality 

 should lead them, in their simplicity, to consider with a 

 reverence bordering on adoration, the great benefits 

 they have received from European influence in their 

 country. When we consider the oppression of which 

 they were the objects, and the state of misery to which 

 the tyranny of their former rulers had reduced them, 

 and from which the kindness and power of an indivi- 

 dual of a race, distinct from any of which they had 

 previously heard differing not only in features and 

 complexion so remarkably, but also in the feelings 

 with which he regarded their poor, distressed and 

 destitute condition we can scarcely blame them, that 

 in the excess of their thankfulness, they should have 

 considered as supernatural, the person who relieved them 

 from their wretchedness, and by whose cherishing care 

 and protecting kindness, they once more enjoyed the 

 lives and liberties with which the great Creator had 

 endowed them. We accordingly find that several of 

 their tribes have ascribed to Mr. Brooke the attri- 



