PORTER^S JOURNAL. 



feet in length, built in the usual fashion of the country, and 

 of a proportioned width and height. 



On the 3d November, upwards of four thousand na- 

 tives, from the different tribes, assembled at the camp with 

 materials for building, and before night they had completed 

 a dwelhng-house for myself, and another for the oftlcers, a 

 sail loft, a cooper's shop, and a place for our sick, a bake- 

 house, a guard-house, and a shed for the sentinel to walk 

 under. The whole were connected by the walls as above 

 described. We removed our barrier of water casks, and 

 took possession of our delightful village, which had been 

 built as if by enchantment. 



Nothing could exceed the regularity with which these 

 people carried on their work, without any chief to guide 

 them, without confusion, and without much noise. They 

 performed their labour with expedition and neatness. 

 Every man appeared to be master of his business, and 

 every tribe appeared to strive which should complete 

 their house with most expedition, and in the most perfect 

 manner. 



When the village was completed, I distributed among 

 them several harpoons, and as usual gave them an oppor- 

 tunity of contending for old iron hoops. All were perfect- 

 ly happy and contented, and it was the cause of great 

 pleasure to Gattanewa and his people that I praised the 

 house they had built above all the rest. 



It seems strange how a people, living under no form of 

 government that we could ever perceive, having no chiefs 

 over them who appear to possess any authority, having 

 neither rewards to stimulate them to exertion, nor dread 

 of punishment before them, should be capable of concei- 

 ving and executing, with the rapidity of lightning, works 

 which astonished us. They appear to act with one mind, 

 to have the same thought, and to be operated on bj the 

 same impulse. They can be compared only to the bea- 

 vers, whose instinct teaches them to design and execute 

 works which claim our admiration. Of all the labours, 

 that which most surprised me was, carrying the gun to the 

 mountains. I have since, with much difficulty, and at the 

 hazard of breaking my neck, travelled the path by which 

 it was carried, or rather 1 have scrambled along the sides 

 of the precipices, and climbed the almost perpendicular 



