porter's journal. 



55 



the leaves are an excellent covering for their houses ; of 

 the inner bark of the small branches they make cloth ; 

 the juice, which exudes, enables them to destroy the rats 

 which infest them ; and of the trunk of the tree they form 

 their canoes, many parts of their houses, and even their 

 gods. Describe to one of the natives of Madison's Island 

 a country abounding in every thing that we consider desi- 

 rable, and after you are done, he will ask you if it pro- 

 duces bread-fruit. A country is nothing to them without 

 that blessing, and the season for bread-fruit is the time of 

 joy and festivity. It commences in December, and lasts 

 until September, when the greatest abundance reigns among 

 them. They sometimes gather it when at the extremity 

 of the branches, by means of a long stick split at the end, 

 with which they seize the stem, and dexterously twist it off, 

 rarely letting the fruit fall to the ground. They com- 

 monly, however, have a small net, kept open at the mouth 

 by means of a hoop, and attached to a pole, in the manner 

 of a crab-net ; with this they disengage the fruit from the 

 branches, receiving it in the net. 



The young shoots from the roots are carefully collected, 

 and planted in a nursery, until they arrive at a sufficient 

 size to be transplanted ; they are several years old before 

 they bear. 



This day, Mowattaeeh^ a chief of the Happahs, of the 

 tribe of Meekees, and son-in-law to Gattenewa^ came, 

 accompanied by several others of his tribe, with the white 

 handkerchief which I had sent them, to treat with me for 

 a peace. I received him with mildness, and gently ex- 

 postulated with them on their imprudence, in having 

 insisted on hostilities with me. They expressed the ut- 

 most regret for their past folly, and hoped that 1 would 

 allow them, in future, to live on the same friendly terme 

 with me as Gattanewa and his people, stating their willing- 

 ness to comply with every thing I should exact from them 

 in reason. I informed them that as I had offered thena 

 peace, and they had rejected it, and had put me to the 

 trouble of chastising them, it was proper that we should 

 receive some compensation. We were in want of hogs, 

 and fruit, and they had an abundance of them, and I wished 

 them to give me a supply once a week, for my people, for 

 which they should be compensated in iron, and such 



