entreaties to induce him to return the penknife were ineffectual. On the following day, however, a chief brought Seton a handsome present from the king, of mats, cloth, and other native productions, with two hundred fine cocoa-nuts.
In the course of the evening the queens played draughts with some of our most scientific amateurs, whom they beat hollow; and such was the skill evinced by them in the game, that not one of our best players succeeded in making a king.
Late in the evening our illustrious guests took their departure, accompanied by all their attendants; but they had scarcely embarked in their canoes when the ship was boarded on all sides by numbers of women, who had come off in small canoes paddled by men or elderly females, and who, after leaving their precious cargo on deck, returned quickly to the island, lest the captain should refuse his sanction to their remaining in the vessel. They crowded in such numbers about the crew as to obstruct the performance of their duty, and the captain threatened to send them all on shore in the ship's boats if they did not behave themselves with more propriety. This had the desired effect,
