CHAP. II. NATIVE CUSTOM HOUSE. 25 



officers whom we had seen on board the previous day and 

 some others, who cordially welcomed us, shaking us frankly 

 by the hand. A large crowd gathered round us as the officers 

 led the way to the custom house, situated under a cluster of 

 tall cocoa-nut trees, not far from the landing place. This 

 building is a purely native structure, between thirty and forty 

 feet long, and nearly as wide. The walls are about twelve 

 feet high, and composed of posts fixed in the ground at 

 unequal distances, the spaces between being filled up with the 

 thick strong leaf-stalks of the traveller's tree fixed i;pright 

 between flat laths, each stalk being about ten feet long. The 

 thatch covering the steep roof was composed of the leaves of 

 the same tree fastened -vvith native cord, and the rods fixed 

 horizontally on the rafters; the floor was of sea-sand, partly 

 covered with strongly woven rush matting, and partly floored 

 with the bark or hard outside of the traveller's tree, which 

 appeared to have been taken off from the fibrous centre of the 

 tree, and beaten out flat, so as to form a sort of hard, flat, 

 cracked, yet adhering board, fifteen or eighteen inches wide, 

 and sometimes more than twenty feet in length. These 

 bark-formed boards were laid side by side on the sand, and, 

 though not nailed to cross rafters, seemed to lie even and 

 firm. Eound the sides and matted end of the house were 

 fixed a number of benches, on which we sat down and con- 

 versed freely with those around us. 



The harbour master, who could speak a little English, and 

 to whom I made myself known as having met him in Eng- 

 land, made inquiries about the affairs of JNIauritius and the 

 Cape, and whether it was peace or war in Europe. He also 

 asked about France, and England, and persons whom he had 

 met there — Lord Palmerston amongst the rest.' He asked 

 more than once about the theatres in London, which seemed 

 to have been objects of great attraction and wonder to the 

 several members of the embassy when there; but I found 



