friend Attago was one of these.  I am of opinion that all the land on. Tongatabu is private property, and that there are here, as at Otaheite, a set of people, who are servants or slaves, and have no property in land.  It is unreasonable to suppose every thing in common in a country so highly cultivated as this.  Interest being the greatest spring which animates the hand of industry, few would toil in cultivating and planting the land, if they did not expect to reap the fruit of their labour:  Were it otherwise, the industrious man would be in a worse state than the idle sluggard.  I frequently saw parties of six, eight, or ten people, bring down to the landing place fruit and other things to dispose of, where one person, a man or woman, superintended the sale of the whole; no exchanges were made but with his or her consent; and whatever we gave in exchange was always given them, which I think plainly shewed them to be the owners of the goods, and the others no more than servants.  Though benevolent nature has been very bountiful to these isles, it cannot be said that the inhabitants are wholly exempt from the curse of our forefathers:  Part of their bread must be earned by the sweat of their brows.  The high state of cultivation their lands are in, must have cost them immense labour.  This is now amply rewarded by the great produce, of which every one seems to partake.  No one wants the common necessaries of life; joy and contentment are painted in every face.  Indeed, it can hardly be otherwise; an easy freedom prevails among all ranks of people; they feel no wants which they do not enjoy the means of gratifying; and they live in a clime where the painful extremes of heat and cold are equally unknown.  If nature has been wanting in any thing, it is in the article of fresh water, which as it is shut up in the bowels of the earth, they are obliged to dig for.  A running stream was not seen, and but one well, at Amsterdam.  At Middleburg, we saw no water but what the natives had in vessels; but as it was sweet and cool, I had no doubt of its being taken up upon the island; and probably not far from the spot where I saw it.

So little do we know of their religion, that I hardly dare mention it.  The buildings called Afiatoucas, before mentioned, are undoubtedly set apart for this purpose.  Some of our gentlemen were of opinion, that they were merely burying-places.  I can only say, from my own knowledge, that they are places to which particular persons directed set speeches, which I understood to be prayers, as hath been already related.  Joining my opinion with that of others, I was inclined to think that they are set apart to be both temples and burying-places, as at Otaheite, or even in Europe.  But I have no idea of the images being idols; not only from what I saw myself, but from Mr Wales’s informing me that they set one of them up, for him and others to shoot at.

One circumstance shewed that these Afiatoucas were frequently resorted to, for one purpose or other—­the areas, or open places, before them, being covered with a green sod, the grass on which was very short.  This did not appear to have been cut, or reduced by the hand of man, but to have been prevented in its growth, by being often trod, or sat upon.