many ships of different nations touched there, no inducements could prevail on them to quit their sea-girt home of simple nature, for all the blandishments which civilized life could produce.  Yet Laonce took a hospitable delight in showing every act of friendship in his power to the captains of the vessels; refitting them with food and fresh water; and rendering them much essential service, in pointing out how to manage with safety the difficult navigation round the several islands.

The animation with which he recited these circumstances, after he was far from the spot where they took place, strongly portrayed the fearless independence of his former life.  He spoke with the decision of one whose commands had been unappealable, and all the barbarian chief lightened in his eyes.  But when he recalled his home there, his family happiness, his countenance fell, his eyes clouded, and he spoke in half-stifled words.  He described his palace-hut; his arms, his hunting spear, his canoe; his return to his hut, with the fruits of the chase; the graceful, delicate person of his wife; her clinging fondness on his entrance; his tenderness for her, and for his children—­for she bore to him a son and a daughter; and, while he spoke, he burst into tears, and sobbed like a child.  “I was then beloved,” said he, “Honoured!—­master of all around me; Now, I am nothing:—­no home—­no wife—­no friend!  I am an outcast here!—­when there!  Oh, Berea! wilt thou have forgotten me?” His tears, and wild agonies, prevented him proceeding; and my eyes could not remain dry, when seeing such genuine grief, such real suffering.

But the cause of his being separated from his South-Sea home, and his beloved Berea and her babes, remains to be told.  It appears, that about three years before the period I met him, a Russian ship, sent on a voyage of discoveries, touched at the island where Laonce had become naturalized.  The captain was received with royal hospitality by the king; and the Prince Laonce became the glad interpreter between the Europeans and his august father-in-law—­for the captain spoke French.  And, besides procuring the crew all they wanted for common comforts, the young chief loaded the commander and his officers with useful presents.  One night it blew a violent gale, and the Russian captain, deeming it impossible to keep his anchorage in a bay so full of unseen dangers, made signals to the land, in hopes of exciting some native, experienced in the navigation, to come off, and direct him how to steer.  Every moment increased his jeopardy; the storm augmented; and, at each growing blast, he expected to be torn from his cables, and dashed to atoms against the rocks.  No one moved from the shore.  Again the signals were repeated:  Laonce had risen from his bed on hearing the first.  Who was there amongst all in that island, excepting his British comrade, who would have known how to move a ship through those boiling waves?  The light canoe, and a vessel of heavy burthen, were different