Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/75

 any islander had committed such an offence, instant death would have followed; and added, that the prince begged him to assure me that he deeply regretted the conduct of his domestic, who should have distinguished between a stranger and a native, and that he had dismissed him with disgrace. When Anderson had finished, the Eooranee grasped my hand in the most friendly manner; and as I felt satisfied with the explanation he had given, I returned its pressure with equal warmth. At this period the resident white people looked to his succession with considerable apprehension, as he was supposed to entertain views hostile to their interests. They might have been led to form this conclusion from his distant habits, and capricious tyranny towards his immediate followers; but I am happy to state, their fears were groundless; for on his accession to the supreme power at his father's death, he treated them with marked indulgence, and held out the greatest encouragement to white people to settle on the island. The day after the circumstance above detailed, I met him near the king's house in a state of nudity, conversing with some of the guards, and the same evening I again saw him in the loose light dress of a West India planter. His father and himself were very