HISTORY. 
247 
of ingenious rather than splendid novelty, has frequently imposed 
the appearance of a covetousness, scarcely culpable from his reve- 
rence for invention, and the amazement its extent excited. To 
present him with the trifles which attracted his notice when he 
visited us, offended him, he told us we must only answer his ques- 
tions, and let him examine them ; to make dashes on the occasion 
^ of a private visit, was to vitiate the motive of the condescension, 
which could not be repeated unless we paid more respect to his 
dignity and friendship. The King is certainly capricious, and his 
liberahty of mind is stained by prejudices against individuals which 
he confesses to be unaccountable ; and to several of the principal 
actors in his brother's deposition, (which, desirous to extend his 
prerogative, he would tacitly censure,) he has been unjustly severe. 
His humanity is frequently superior to his superstition and policy, 
he offended Quatchi Quofie, one of the four, by limiting the 
human sacrifices at his mother's funeral, and resisted all the impor- 
tunities, founded on precedent, for the allowance of a greater 
number. He dismissed us twice with apologies for not proceeding 
to business, confessing, the first time, that he had been unusually 
irritated just after he sent for us, and had not recovered his calm- 
ness ; the latter, that some agreeable news had induced him to 
drink more than fitted him to hear great palavers like ours. In 
his judicial administration, a lie always aggravated the punishment, 
and truth generally extenuated, and sometimes atoned of itself for 
the offence: he invariably anticipated the temerity of perjury, 
where convicting evidence was to be opposed to the accused. 
The King's manners are a happy mixture of dignity and affability , 
they engage rather than encourage, and his general deportment is 
concihating though repressive. He speaks well, and more logically ^ 
than most of his council, who are diffuse, but his superior talent is 
marked in the shrewd questions by which he fathoms a design or 
