LANDED PROPRIETORS. 97 
the strength of the nation. They were generally 
the proprietors and cultivators of the soil, and held 
their land, not from the gift of the king, but from 
their ancestors. The petty raatiras frequently pos¬ 
sessed from 20 to 100 acres, and generally had 
more than their necessities required. They resided 
on their own lands, and enclosed so much as was 
necessary for their support. They were the most 
industrious class of the community, working their 
own plantations, building their own houses, manu¬ 
facturing their own cloth and mats, besides fur¬ 
nishing these articles for the king. 
The higher class among the raatiras were those 
who possessed large tracts of land in one place, or 
a number of smaller sections in different parts. 
Some of them owned perhaps many hundred acres, 
parts of which were cultivated by those who lived 
in a state of dependence upon them, or by those 
petty raatiras who occupied their plantations on 
condition of rendering military service to the pro¬ 
prietors, and a portion of the produce. These 
individuals were a valuable class in the commu¬ 
nity, and constituted the aristocracy of the country. 
They were in general more regular, temperate, and 
industrious in their habits, than the higher ranks, 
and, in all the measures of government, imposed a 
restraint upon the extravagance or precipitancy of 
the king, who, without their co-operation, could 
carry but few of his measures. In their public 
national assemblies, the speakers often compared 
the nation to a ship, of which the king was the 
mast; and whenever this figure was used, the 
raatiras were always termed the shrouds, or ropes, 
by which the mast is kept upright. Possessing at 
all times the most ample stores of native provisions, 
the number of their dependents, or retainers, was 
III. H 
