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1SG porter's journal, 



natives of the valleys bordering on the lee Bay, had gone^ 

 to war with a tribe about thirty miles distant, at 10 A. M. 

 be set out for the Bay, with two boats and twelve armed 

 men, accompanied by Gaitanewa, the aged chief. On 

 landing, he was informed that the chief of the valley had 

 hid himself among the rocks, and that the people generally 

 were busily employed in removing their property to the 

 interior. They had already taken the hfe of an innocent 

 man, who came up to the village, ignorant of the com- 

 mencement of hostilities ; and therefore lieut. Gamble 

 deemed it necessary to demand why they went to war. 

 He reminded them of the promise they made me, to live in 

 peace, and not to engage in war unless I directed them; 

 endeavoured to convince them, that no advantages could 

 be gained by warring among themselves ; and recapitulated 

 some of the evils they had already experienced in plunder- 

 ing, and shedding blood. To this it was answered, that the 

 chiefs, and the people in general, were averse to the war; 

 and, on farther inquiry, lieut. Gamble learnt, that about two 

 hundred of the tribe who resided at the opposite extremity 

 of the valley, and among whom the assassin just alluded to, 

 had taken up his abode, were the sole cause of the dis- 

 turbance. As the readiest way, therefore, of putting an 

 end to the quarrel, he directed the chiefs to apprehend the 

 assassin, and deliver him up within two days, upon pain of 

 being attacked with his whole force. They replied, that 

 they had already been in search of him that morning, with 

 an intention of taking his life, but that, in consequence of 

 his absconding, with all his abettors, over the hills, they 

 had not met with success. They added, however, that by 

 way of inflicting some injury upon the enemy, they had 

 brought down all the swine and bananas they could find, 

 and intended going up again in the morning for more. 

 These spoils were immediately offered to lieut. Gamble ; 

 but as his chief object was to terminate, at once, all enmity 

 between the contending parties, he desired them not to 

 plunder any more, but to use all their efforts in apprehend- 

 ing and bringing down the assassin ; to which they readily 

 assented. 



Some persons may perhaps be at a loss to conceive, why 

 lieut. Gamble should j;ake so deep an interest in the af- 

 fairs of the natives, and especially, why he should subject 



