From Madera, however, who had no concealments, we learnt afterwards that the King has only one wife, but has twelve concubines; he is an old man, and has seven children. It is curious that none of the chiefs will inform Captain Maxwell whether or not the Prince who visited the ships yesterday has any children; it is hardly possible that they can be ignorant of the fact; but either they are kept strangely in the dark as to what passes in the palace, or they carry their reserve on royal topics to a singular length. From the bridge we went to the top of the hill above the well, where Jeeroo sung several songs. On the way up we stopped at one of the large horse-shoe tombs mentioned before, which resembles in all respects the tombs of China. On this similarity being pointed out to Jeeroo, he became anxious to explain that it was a Loo-choo tomb, and not exclusively Chinese; meaning probably that Loo-choo persons were contained in it. He informed us that these tombs did not contain a single person only, or a single generation, but were used as cemeteries from age to age. The bodies, according to his account, are put into coffins, and allowed to lie untouched for seven years, by which time the flesh is entirely decayed; the bones are then collected, and being put into cases are preserved by the families of the deceased with great care. 25th of October.--This being the anniversary of His Majesty's accession to the throne, the ships were dressed in colours, and a royal salute fired. Upon the natives this produced a great effect; they had never seen any other flags than the single ensigns hoisted on Sundays, and this display of several hundred flags was well calculated to surprise and delight them. They were informed some days before that there would be some ceremonies in honour of our King, and great numbers of people had assembled on the shore in consequence. This morning had also been fixed upon for returning the Prince's visit; accordingly we left the Alceste at one o'clock, forming a procession of four boats, with flags in each. Captain Maxwell took twelve of his officers and young gentlemen, and six accompanied me from the Lyra, all being dressed in full uniform. We entered the harbour, and landed at the same part of the causeway as before, where the chiefs were in attendance, as on the occasion of our visit on the 23d ult.