SALTPETRE ROCK. 41 



afford to his boy. His people frequently made 

 excuses for the conduct of their chief, by stating 

 that he either had been drinking, or else that he 

 had not ; so, drunk or sober, it seemed quite natural 

 to them that the old fellow should be in a continual 

 ill-humour from some undefined connexion with 

 strong drink. 



I took care to promise him another present on 

 the occasion of our leaving Farree, as I conceived 

 that it might be some expectation of the sort that 

 was operating to cause our tiresome detention. I 

 was wrong in this, for it was not his pleasure, but 

 the King's, his master, that we should be kept at 

 Farree, although he tried to make us believe it was 

 his own, and assuming an authority that did not 

 belong to him, made our confinement more irksome 

 than it needed to have been, on purpose to evince 

 his power. With our sentinels behind us, however, 

 we could wander all over the hill of Farree, and 

 we accordingly amused ourselves by endeavouring 

 to extend our information upon the various 

 subjects of novel interest with which we were 

 surrounded. 



One observation I cannot do better than to insert 

 here, respecting the rocks and soil of Farree, which 

 abound with the nitrate of potass, the bald face of 

 the former, in many places, being hollowed into 

 deep grooves by the constant attrition of the 

 tongues of the numerous flocks and herds, which 

 seem to be as fond of this salt as the same animals 

 are of common table salt in other countries ; a 



