DESPOTIC RAPACITY. 129 
good chief, or governor, they always spoke of 
him as one who distributed among his chiefs 
whatever he received, and never refused any thing 
for which they asked. 
Notwithstanding this generosity on the part of 
the king, the conduct of the government was often 
most rapacious and unjust. The stated and re¬ 
gular supplies, furnished by the inhabitants, were 
inadequate to the maintenance of the num¬ 
bers who, attaching themselves to the king’s 
household, passed their time in idleness, but were 
fed at his table. Whenever there was a deficiency 
of food for his followers or guests, a number of 
his servants went to the residence of a raatira, 
or farmer, and, sometimes without even asking, 
tied up the pigs that were fed near the dwell¬ 
ing, plundered the abode, ravaging, like a band 
of lawless robbers, the plantations or the gardens, 
and taking away every article of food the poor, 
oppressed labourer possessed. Sometimes they 
launched a fine canoe that might be lying near, 
and, loading it with their plunder, left the indus¬ 
trious proprietor destitute even of the means of 
subsistence; and, as they were the king’s servants, 
he durst not complain. 
When the king travelled, he was usually attend¬ 
ed by a company of Areois, or a worthless train of 
idlers ; and often when they entered a district that 
was perhaps well supplied with provisions for its 
inhabitants, if they remained any length of time, 
by their plundering and wanton destruction it was 
reduced to a state of desolation. Sometimes the 
king sent his servants to take what they wanted 
from the fields or gardens of the people ; but often , 
unauthorized by him, they used his name to 
commit the most lawless and injurious outrage 
III. K 
