188 



pouter's jouenai.. 



In breaking up the after hold of the Seringapatam, six 

 swivels and four blunderbusses were found, and imnriedi- 

 ately landed, to be mounted at the fort. My readers will 

 tind, on referring to the viiith chapter of this Journal, that 

 this ship, at the time of her capture, mounted several guns, 

 and was strongly manned. She had already made prize of 

 an American whale ship ; but, on demanding her com- 

 mission, her commander informed me, with the utmost 

 terror in his countenance, that he had none. Now, how- 

 ever probable it may be, that the guns I saw on board her 

 were obtained by the captain, without the knowledge of his 

 owners, siiice his arrival in the Pacific Ocean, yet 1 leave 

 them to judge, whether these swivels and blunderbusses 

 were not concealed in the hold of the ship, previously to 

 her departure from England, and that, too, with the know- 

 ledge of her owners, and the revenue officers, in order to 

 commence a course of piratical depredation upon the sup- 

 posed defenceless whale ships of the United States / 



An instance of extraordinary superstition occurred on 

 the 15th of January, in the person o[ Gattanezoa, the aged 

 chief, who had only returned from the valley of Lewis's 

 Bay two days before. He stated to lieut. Gamble, that he 

 was extreujely ill, and much alarmed ; the Happah tribe 

 having, by some means or other, stolen a lock of his hair, 

 and buried it in a plantain leaf, for the purpose of taking 

 iiis life. Lieut. Gamble used every argument to unde- 

 ceive him ; and endeavoured to expose the ridiculous 

 fallacy of the notion to which the old man had givea 

 way. But it was all in vain : die he must, unless the lock 

 and the plantain leaf were brought to him ; and to obtain 

 them, he had offered the Happahs the greater part of his 

 property. The Happahs^ however, were inexorable, and 

 bent upon his destruction ; and the poor, deluded chief 

 earnestly begged of lieut. Gamble, to advise him what to 

 do. He complained of an excessive pain in the head, 

 breast, and sides ; and, taking these afflictions into consi- 

 deration, lieut. Gamble suggested the propriety of using 

 some medicine, and being bled. He expressed a wish to 

 be bled immediately; but as twilight had already set in, 

 lieut. Gamble deferred it until morning. The next day, 

 at 8 A. M. Gattanewa despatched a messenger for lieut. 

 Gamble, who, on arriving at his house, found at least three 

 hundred men, women, and children, collected together, to 



