22 



porter's journal. 



were several of them on board the frigate, I determined, if 

 possible, to secure the whole of them at any price, as I had 

 been informed that hogs, the only animal food on the island, 

 could be purchased for no other article. I succeeded in 

 procuring nearly all on board, by paying for them at the 

 rate of one dollar each ; but few of them were of a suffi- 

 cient size to make them of much value. I shall in all pro- 

 bability have occasion to speak of the strange infatuation of 

 this people for this strange ornament, which is worn sus- 

 pended to the neck, and sometimes is cut to form orna- 

 ments to the ears. No jewel, however valuable, is half so 

 much esteemed in Europe or America, as is a whale's tooth 

 here. I have seen them by fits laugh and cry for joy, at 

 the possession of one of these darling treasures. Ivory, 

 however finely wrought and beautiful in its kind, bears no 

 comparison in their estimation. Ivory is worn by the 

 lower and poorer classes, made into the form of whales' 

 teeth, and as ear ornaments, while the whales' teeth is worn 

 only by persons of rank and wealth. Some idea may be 

 formed of the value in which they are held by the natives, 

 when it is known that a ship of three hundred tons burthen, 

 may be loaded with sandal-wood at this island, at the price 

 of ten whales' teeth of a large size. For these the natives 

 will cut it, bring it from the distant mountains, and take it 

 on board the ship. This cargo in China, would be worth 

 near a million of dollars. I have seen this sandal-wood, 

 that is so highly esteemed by the Chinese ; (indeed their 

 infatuation for it, falls little short of the natives for whales' 

 teeth) it does not appear capable of receiving a high pohsh, 

 nor is its colour agreeable. The odour arising from it is 

 pleasant, and the principal uses to which the Chinese are 

 said to apply it, is to burn it in their temples, and to ex- 

 tract from it an oil, which they consider of great value. 



The warlike attitude of the Happahs, who still kept their 

 station on the mountains, made me determine to wait a day 

 or two before I commenced my repairs on the ship. I had 

 understood, that there was a bay to leeward, which might 

 suit our purpose, where the natives who inhabited its val- 

 leys were at peace. But it was not represented to me as 

 being so commodious as the one we now occupied, nor so 

 easy of access and^egress. I had not yet determined at what 

 place to form our encampment, land our water-casks, and 



