They appear to have no money, and from all we could see or hear, they are even ignorant of its use. Those, however, who have visited China cannot be so ill informed, and yet none of them set any value upon Spanish dollars, or upon any gold coins that we had. Though we were incessantly trying to make out from Madera and the others, what their medium of exchange was, we could never learn any thing distinct upon the subject, nor could they be made to comprehend our questions about money; a difficulty, it may be observed, which we should expect to meet with among people whose only mode of purchase was by barter. The only circumstance which came to our knowledge bearing at all upon this question, was during the time when the garden was under preparation for the reception of the Alceste's stores; it was then remarked that each of the labourers employed had a little piece of paper stuck in his hair, with a single character written on it; this naturally excited our curiosity, but the inquiries we were enabled to make at that early stage of our knowledge of the language, led to nothing conclusive. Afterwards, when our means in this respect were more ample, we could not recall the circumstance to the recollection of the chiefs. As these papers were called by the people wearing them, "hoonatee," and as "hoonee" means ship, Mr. Clifford has conjectured that they may have been written passes to enable them to enter the gate on the ship's business. We saw no arms of any kind, and the natives always declared that they had none. Their behaviour on seeing a musket fired certainly implied an ignorance of fire-arms. In a cottage at the north end of the island, we saw a spear which had the appearance of a warlike weapon, but we had every reason to believe that this was used for the sole purpose of catching fish, having seen others not very dissimilar actually employed in this way. They looked at our swords and cutlasses, and at the Malay creeses and spears, with equal surprise, being apparently as little acquainted with the one as with the other. The chiefs carried little case knives in the folds of their robes, or in the girdle, and the lower orders had a larger knife, but these were always of some immediate practical utility, and were not worn for defence nor as ornaments. They denied having any knowledge of war either by experience or by tradition. We never saw any punishment inflicted at Loo-choo: a tap with the fan, or an angry look, was the severest chastisement ever resorted to, as far as we could discover. In giving orders, the chiefs were mild though firm, and the people always obeyed with cheerfulness. There seemed to be great respect and confidence on the one hand, and much consideration and kind feeling on the other. In this particular, more than in any other that fell under our notice, Loo-choo differs from China, for in the latter country we saw none of this generous and friendly understanding between the upper and lower classes.