82 Porter^is Voyage 



sufficiently strong to drive them from the island : and if they pre- 

 sumed to enter into the valley while I remained there, I should 

 send a body of men to chastise them ; to warn them to cease all 

 hostilities so long as I remained among them ; and say that if 

 they had hogs or fruit to dispose of, they might come and trade 

 freely with us, as I should not permit the natives of the valley to 

 injure or molest them. While I was using measures to get toge- 

 ther, my officers and men, who had wandered away in different 

 directions, my attention was drawn to an object, which at the 

 moment had presented itself. A handsome young woman, of 

 about eighteen years of age, her complexion fairer than common, 

 her carriage majestic, and her dress better and somewhat different 

 from the other females, approached. Her glossy black hair and 

 her skin were highly anointed with the cocoa-nut oil, and her 

 whole person and appearance neat and comely. On inquiry who 

 this dignified personage might be, I was informed that her name 

 was Piteenee, a grand daughter to the chief, or greatest man in 

 the valley, whose name was Gattanewa. This lady, on whose 

 countenance was not to be perceived any of those playful smiles 

 which enliven the countenances of the others, I was informed was 

 held in greast estimation, on account of her rank and beauty, and 

 I felt that it would be necessary, from motives of policy, to pay 

 some attentions to a personage so exalted. She received my ad- 

 vances with a coldness and hauteur which would have suited a 

 princess, and repelled every thing like familiarity with a sternness 

 that astonished me. Yet this lady, like the rest of the women of 

 the island, soon followed the dictates of her own interest, and 

 formed a connexion with one of the officers, which lasted with 

 but little fidelity on her part as long as we remained, showing 

 herself on the whole a most notorious jilt. Gattanewa, I was in- 

 formed at the time of my landing, was at a fortified village, 

 which was pointed out to me, on the top of one of the highest 

 mountains. They have two of these strong places, one on the 

 top of the aforesaid mountain, the other lower down the valley, 

 and guarding one of the principal passes. The manner of forti- 

 fying those places, is to plant closely on end, the bodies of large 

 trees, of forty feet in length, securing them together by pieces of 

 timber, strongly lashed across, presenting on the brow of a hill, 

 difficult of access, a breastwork of considerable extent, which 

 would require European artillery to destroy. At the back of 

 this a scaffolding is raised, on which is placed a platform for the 

 warriors, who ascend by the means of ladders, and thence shower 

 down on their assailants spears and stones. The one at which 

 Gattanewa now was, is situated near a remarkable gap, cut 

 through the mountain by the natives, to serve as a ditch or fosse, 

 and must have required much labour in the execution ; the other 



