porter's journal. 



41 



in the bodies of the five men killed in storming the fort. 

 We met with no loss on our side or on that of our allies. 

 We had two wounded, and one of the Indians had his jaw 

 broke with a stone. I saw him the day afterwards ; it was 

 neatly and securely bound up with the leaves of the palm- 

 tree, and he appeared to suffer but little from the pain. 

 One of the dead, it appeared, was a native of our valley, 

 who had married among the Happahs. His relations had 

 taken charge of his body, which, on being found, had been 

 carefully wrapped up in matts. The rest I was informed 

 were lying in the public square, where the natives were 

 rejoicing over them. I had been informed by the whites, 

 on my arrival, and even by Wilson, that the natives of this 

 island were*cannibals : but, on the strictest inquiry, 1 could 

 not learn that either of them had seen them in the act of • 

 eating human flesh. I was desirous of having this point 

 put beyond a doubt, though the assurances they had given 

 me, that they really were cannibals, had strongly incHned 

 me to believe that it was the case. Indeed, in conversing 

 with Gattanewa on the subject, he did not hestitate to ac- 

 knowledge that it was sometimes practised by certain cha- 

 racters ; but with much pride and exultation he added, 

 that none of his family, to the earliest period of their ex- 

 istence, were known to have eaten human flesh, or to have 

 tasted a hog, which had died or been stolen. He said they 

 sometimes eat their enemies. Yet, in all their wars, which 

 had been carried on since Wilson and the others had been 

 among them, it does not appear that any had been eaten, 

 according to our acceptation of the word. Several of the 

 dead bodies of their enemies had fallen into their hands, 

 and had been seen by the whites in an unmutilated state 

 for several days after their death, until indeed they had 

 become too offensive for the natives to bear ; and certainly 

 it cannot be supposed that they would prefer eating them 

 in that putrid state, although Wilson declared that that was 

 the time they feasted on them. Desirous of clearing up 

 in my own mind a fact which so nearly concerned the cha- 

 racter of a whole people, who otherwise deserved to rank 

 above the mere savage, I proceeded, the day after the 

 battle, with Wilson, and accompanied by a marine (my 

 usual practice when I went among them) to the house of 

 Gattanewa, with a view of claiming the dead bodies, in 



VOL. II. 6 



