porter's journal. 



idea of their neatness, I may say elegance, which is not 

 surpassed by any other work to be found among them. In 

 his description of their stilts, he is very minute and accu- 

 H:ate, and equally incorrect in his conjectures as to their 

 use. He supposes them intended for the purpose of ford- 

 ing the streams, which he believes are occasioned by the 

 frequent inundations to vsrhich he thinks the island is liable. 

 I can assure Mr. Fleurien that they are used only for 

 amusement. Can it be supposed, for a moment, that a 

 nation of people who are amphibious, who are one half 

 of their time in the water, who are in the habit of bathing 

 at almost every stream, who are almost destitute of cloth- 

 ing, and perfectly naked from the upper part of the thighs 

 downwards, would fall on so ridiculous an expedient for 

 crossing the insignificant rivulets of an island, whose cir- 

 cumference does not exceed tw^enty leagues, rivulets 

 which the greater part of the year are nearly dry, and at 

 all times barely afford sufficient water for a ship ? 



They are used, as I before observed, solely for amuse- 

 ment. They enter into their gymnastic exercises, they 

 run with them, and endeavour to trip one another. They 

 are curiously wrought ; and as Mr. Fleurien wrote his de- 

 scription of those of the island of St. Christiana, with a 

 pair of stilts before him, and as the description answers 

 exactly to those of Nooaheevah, (Madison's Island,) I take 

 the liberty of using the words of that elegant writer. 



" The care they take to build their houses on stone plat- 

 forms, which raise them to a certain elevation above the 

 ground, has already indicated that their island must be 

 exposed to inundations ; and the use which they make of 

 stilts, confirms this opinion. These stilts, to which the 

 English voyagers appear not to have paid attention, are 

 contrived in a manner which announces that the inunda- 

 tions are not regular, but vary in their height : and. want, 

 which is the parent of industry, has suggested to the in- 

 habitants of St. Christiana a method as simple as it is in- 

 genious, by which this help, that is necessary to them for 

 keeping up a communication with each other in the rainy 

 season, may be employed equally as well in the highest 

 waters, as the lowest. For this purpose each stilt is com- 

 posed of two pieces : the one, of hard wood, and of a 

 single piece, may be called the step : the other is a pole 



