EXTORTION OF THE KING’S SERVANTS. 131 
the king, and when, in return for provisions fur¬ 
nished, or acts of kindness shewn, by the hospitable 
inhabitants, he has made them a trifling pre¬ 
sent, it has been instantly seized by the vassal of 
the chief, who has followed him for that purpose. 
The poor people were also allowed to dispose of 
their produce to the captains or merchants that 
might visit them for the purpose of barter, but the 
king or chief frequently requested the greater part, 
or even the whole, of what they might receive in 
return for it. 
That they should have improved in industry, or 
advanced in civilization, under such a system, was 
impossible, and that they should, under such cir¬ 
cumstances, have tilled a sufficient quantity of 
ground to furnish supplies for the shipping, is a 
matter of greater surprise, than that they should 
not have cultivated more. The humiliating degra¬ 
dation to which it reduced the farmers, and the 
constant irritation of feelings to which this wretched 
system exposed them, were not the only evils that 
resulted from it. It naturally led the raatiras to 
regard their chiefs as enemies, and generated 
disaffection to their administration. It also greatly 
diminished their resources, for, under the discou r 
ragements resulting from constant liability to plun¬ 
der, the people were unable to furnish those sup¬ 
plies, which they would otherwise have found it a 
satisfaction to render. 
This system of civil polity, disjointed and ill 
adapted as it was to answer any valuable purpose, 
was closely interwoven with their sanguinary ido¬ 
latry, and sanctioned by the authority of the gods. 
The king was not only raised to the head of this 
government, but he was considered as a sort of 
vicegerent to the supernatural powers presiding 
