/S2 PORTER^S JOUBNAL, 



would not kill him, as did the tribe of which the missionary- 

 informed me ; we would thank him for his good intentions, 

 and give him, as we gave the missionary, shelter and food 

 while he remained among us. Our gods supply us with 

 bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, bananas and tarra in abun- 

 dance ; we are perfectly contented, and we feel satisfied 

 there is no other such island to be found as Nooaheevah, 

 nor a valley more happy than the valley of Tieuhoy. You 

 who reside in the moon come to get the produce of our 

 island ; why would you visit us, if your own gods and your 

 own island co]|ld supply all your wants. The gods of white 

 men, we believe, are greater than our gods, because white 

 men are themselves superior to us. The gods of white 

 men were intended for them alone. The gods of Nooa- 

 heevah were intended solely for us. I must here remark 

 that these people are fully pursuaded that we reside in the 

 moon, and that we owe the fairness of our skin entirely to 

 the colour of that luminary. They are sensible that Eng- 

 land and America are two distinct countries, or rather isl- 

 ands, or valleys situated in the same island ; and they were 

 astonished, that while the two tribes were at war we should 

 suffer our prisoners to live. 



No people are more strongly attached to their soil than 

 the natives of Nooaheevah ; no persuasions whatever, no 

 offers of reward (not even of whales' teeth) can induce 

 them to leave their beloved island, their friends, and rela- 

 tions. And the only times that 1 ever discovered anger 

 strongly marked on their countenances, was when, for my 

 amusement, I proposed to their children or brothers to 

 take them to America. Indeed I should have been glad 

 that one or two of their young men would have consented 

 to go with me, if I had been certain of having it in my 

 power to return them to their native island. But the ap- 

 prehension that this might not be the case, prevented my 

 being so solicitous as I otherwise should have been. It is 

 true, they have not the same aversion to leaving their island 

 to search for other lands. But they are taught by tradi- 

 tions that those are not the countries of white men, they 

 are islands abounding in bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, tarra, 

 kava, and such other productions as are to them in higher 

 estimation^ than any other ; they are the lands belonging to 

 the gr€at nation of which they make a part, who speak 



