PRESENT PROPRIETORS OF BERXTANX. 373 
ing its proprietor, I asked its use. He informed 
me that it was devoted to that object, and spoke 
with apparent satisfaction of the happiness he 
enjoyed in the retirement it afforded. 
The erection of their dwelling, culture of their 
garden, building the house for hidden prayer, &c. 
(the labours of the present proprietors of Beritani,) 
are very different from the erection of a boarded 
house merely as a fortress, in which are deposited, 
as the most valued treasures of its inhabitant, 
arms and ammunition. It does not appear that 
Mai’s house was designed as a model by which the 
natives were to be encouraged to build their own, 
but a place of security for the property, which he 
was recommended to enclose with a spacious 
native building: and the pursuits of its present 
occupants are in delightful contrast with the child¬ 
ish exhibition of fireworks, or the display of those 
trinkets, by which it was endeavoured to impress 
the minds of the natives with ideas of English 
superiority. The events which have since tran¬ 
spired were but little anticipated by the distin¬ 
guished navigator who conducted this simple- 
hearted native from one end of the globe to the 
other, spared no pains to promote his welfare and 
comfort, and who, although mistaken in the 
means he employed, undoubtedly aimed at the 
prosperity of the interesting people whom he had 
introduced to the notice of the civilized world. 
Visiting almost daily the spot, and living in 
habits of intercourse with the successors of Mai, I 
have been often led to compare the views and 
circumstances of the present inhabitants of Beritani 
with those of the resident originally left there by 
its discoverer; and in connexion with the circum¬ 
stances of Mai after his return to his native islands, 
