SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
61 
and enjoyed the hospitality of the chiefs, whom they are 
pleased to call savages, had paused before they had described, 
with unnecessary detail, a drunken bout at Honoruru, and 
considered whether among the princes and nobles of Europe 
there might not have been scenes quite as derogatory from 
the character of polished gentlemen, and quite as surprising 
to persons unused to witness the effects of wine. 
As to their manners, it must be in the recollection of 
many persons, that they were decorous and self-possessed 
on all occasions. When they were kindly invited to a large 
assembly at Mr. Secretary Canning’s, the curiosity to see 
these inhabitants of nearly the Antipodes caused, as is usual 
in London, where, as of old, we are more eager after strange 
sights than in any other place, a sort of bustle and crowding 
round of a well-dressed mob, to look at the strange king 
and queen and nobles; but the laughter and the exclama¬ 
tions which seem to have been ready prepared for the royal 
strangers soon died away when it was perceived that not 
the slightest embarrassment or awkwardness was displayed 
by them, and that the king knew how to hold his state, and 
the erees to do their service, as well as if they had practised 
all their lives in European courts. The chiefs were much 
delighted with the politeness of the Duke and Duchess of 
Gloucester, who were of the party. The queen particularly 
