porter's journal. 



87 



Finding that it was absolutely necessary to bring the 

 Typees to terms, or endanger our good understanding with 

 the other tribes, and consequently our own safety, 1 re- 

 Solved to endeavour to bring about a negotiation, and to 

 back it with a force sufficient to intimidate them. 



On the 27th November I informed the Taeehs and 

 Happahs that I should next day go to war with the Typees, 

 agreeably to my original plan, and directed Gattanewa to 

 proceed on board the Essex Junior, with two persons who 

 went to perform the office of ambassadors. These, on the 

 arrival of the ship in their bay, were to be sent to the Ty- 

 pees, offiiring the same terms of peace as were accepted 

 by the others. The Essex Junior sailed in the afternoon, 

 and I proceeded next morning, at three o'clock, with five 

 boats, accompanied by ten war canoes, blowing their conchs 

 as a signal to keep together. One of our boats separated 

 from the others, passed the bay, and did not rejoin us again 

 until the middle of the day. We arrived at the Typee 

 landing at sunrise, and were joined by ten war canoes from 

 the Happahs ; the Essex Junior soon after arrived and an- 

 chored. The tops of all the neighbouring mountains were 

 covered with the Taeeh and Happah warriors, armed with 

 spears, clubs, and slings ; the beach was lined with the 

 warriors who came with the canoes, and who joined us 

 from the hills. Our force did not amount to a less number 

 than five thousand men, but not a Typee or any of their 

 dwellings were to be seen ; for the whole length of the 

 beach, extending upwards of a quarter of a mile, was a 

 clear level plain, which extended back about one hundred 

 yards. A high and ahnost impenetrable swampy thicket 

 bordered on this plain, and the only trace we could per- 

 ceive, which, we were informed, led to the habitations, was 

 a narrow pathway which winded through the swamp. The 

 canoes were all hauled on the beach, the Taeehs on the 

 right, the Happahs on the left, and our four boats in the 

 centre. We only waited for reinforcements from the 

 Essex Junior, our interpreter, our ambassadors, and Gat- 

 tanewa; and on the ship's anchoring, I went on board to 

 hasten them on shore, directing lieutenant Downes to bring 

 with him fifteen men ; these, with the twenty on shore, 1. 

 supposed would be fully sufficient to incline them to terms. 

 On ray return to the beach, I found everyone in arms, the 



