PORTER'S JQURJ^fAL. 



43 



terred war ; I had proffered them my friendship, and they 

 had spurned at it. That there was no alternative left me. 

 I had chastised them, and was appeased. Addressing my- 

 self to her daughter, an interesting woman of about twenty- 

 three years of age, who had come to so'iicit peace, I told 

 her I should respect any messenger sent from her tribe 

 bearing a white flag ; that her husband might come in 

 safety, and that 1 should be as readj^ to make peace, 

 as \ had been to punish their insolence. I then ex- 

 horted the wife of Gattanewa to endeavour to impress 

 on the minds of every person the necessity of living on 

 friendly terms with us ; that we were disposed to consider 

 them as brothers ; that we had come with no hostile inten- • 

 tions toward them, and so long as they treated us as friends, 

 we would protect them against all their enemies ; that they . 

 and their property should be secure, and that I should in- 

 flict the most exemplary punishment on such of my people 

 as should be known to impose on a friendly native; but that 

 should a stone be thrown ; or an article stolen from me or 

 my people, and the offender not be given up to me, I should 

 make the valley a scene of desolation. The old. woman 

 was all attention to this discourse as delivered through Wil- 

 son the interpreter; and 1 was about proceeding when she 

 requested me to stop. She now rose and commanded si- 

 lence among the multitude, which had considerably aug- 

 mented since my arrival, and addressed them with much 

 grace and energy in a speech of about half an hour ; ex- 

 horting them, as I understood, to conduct themselves with 

 propriety, and explaining to them the advantages likely to 

 result from a good understanding with us. After she had 

 finished, she took me affectionately by the hand, and remind- 

 ed me that I was her husband. All alarms now were sub- 

 sided. I inquired for Gattanewa, and was informed that 

 he was at the public square rejoicing over the bodies of the 

 slain, but had been sent for. I proceeded for the place, and 

 met the old man hastening home. He had been out from 

 the earliest dawn, and had not broken his fast. He held 

 in one hand a cocoa-nut shell, containing a quantity of sour 

 preparation of the bread-fruit, which is highly esteemed by 

 the natives, and in the other a raw fish, which he occa- 

 sionally dipped into it as he ate it. As soon, however, as 

 Wilson gave him to understand that the practice of eating 



