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50 porter's journal. 



Our accounts of voyages made into this sea do not extend 

 so far back, and even if they did, we should be at a loss 

 to know him by the name given to him by the natives. 

 They found it impossible to pronounce our names distinctly, 

 even after the utmost pains to teach them, and the most 

 repeated trials on their part. They gave me the name of 

 Opotee^ which was the nearest they could come to Porter. 

 Mr. Downes was called Onou ; lieutenant Wilmer, Woore- 

 me ; lieutenant M'Knight, Muscheetie, and the name of 

 every one else underwent an equal change. These names 

 we were called by, and answered to, so long as we remained 

 with them ; and it is not improbable that we shall be so call- 

 ed in their traditionary accounts. If there should be no 

 other means of handing our names down to posterity, it is 

 likely we shall be as little known to future navigators as 

 Haii is to us. Although we know not the navigator who, 

 at that early period, (it is possible, however, that there 

 may be some error in the chronology of the natives) visit- 

 ed these islands, yet we cannot be so much at a loss to 

 discover the nation to which he belonged. The natives 

 call a hog bouarka, or rather Pouarka ; and it is likely 

 that they still retain the name nearly by which they were 

 first known to them. The Spaniards call a hog porca^ 

 giving it a sound very little different from that used by the 

 natives of these islands ; and as the Spaniards were the 

 earliest navigators in these seas, there is scarcely a doubt 

 that they are indebted to one of that nation for so precious 

 a gift. 



The cocoa-nuts grow in great abundance in every valley 

 of the island, and are cultivated with much care. This 

 tree is too well known to need a description ; yet the mode 

 used to propagate it may not be uninteresting. As the 

 cocoa-nuts become ripe, they are carefully collected from 

 the tree, which is ascended by means of a slip of strong 

 bark, with which they make their feet fast a little above 

 the ankles, leaving them about a foot asunder. They 

 then grasp the tree with their arms, feet, and knees, and] 

 the strip of bark resting on the rough projections of the] 

 bark of the three, prevents them from slipping down. In! 

 this manner, by alternately shifting their feet and hands, 

 they ascend with great apparent ease and rapidity the 

 highest tree, whence they send down the fruit, which is 



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