10 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
he island, produced sensations we had been little accustomed to, 
and made us long for the fruits with which the trees appeared 
every where loaded. 
On rounding the S.E. part of the island we saw a canoe com- 
ng off to the ship with eight of the natives, one of whom was 
seated in the bow with his head ornamented with some yellow 
leaves, which at a distance we supposed to be feathers. They ap¬ 
proached us very cautiously, and would not venture along side 
until we had run very close in; but no persuasions of ours could in¬ 
duce them to come on board, although we offered them pieces of 
iron hoops, knives, fish-hooks, and other articles which we sup¬ 
posed them t© hold in the highest estimation. We had a native 
of the island of Otaheita on board, who enabled them, but with 
apparent difficulty, to comprehend our wishes, and who gave them 
repeated assurances of our friendly disposition. They came under 
the stern, and after we had sent down to them in a bucket made 
fast to a rope several of the above articles, they sent up to us by 
the same conveyance a few fish and a part of their ornaments, con¬ 
sisting of a belt made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut, garnished 
with the small teeth of a hog, the only articles of exchange in 
their possession. They frequently repeated to us the word taya , 
which signifies friend, and invited us to the shore, where they as¬ 
sured us, by the most expressive gesticulations, that the vahienas , 
or women, were entirely at our service. Their bodies were en¬ 
tirely naked, and their chief ornament consisted in the dark and 
fanciful lines formed by tattooing, which covered them. The fore¬ 
skin of their privates was drawn so close over and tied with a 
strip of bark as to force that member entirely into their bodies, 
and gave to them a strange and unnatural appearance. I display¬ 
ed to them some whales’ teeth, an object to which I had under¬ 
stood that the natives of this group were greatly attached. They 
seemed to be greatly attracted by them, and promised to return to 
the shore and bring us in exchange for them fruit and -vahienas , 
not however before I had assured them that, as an additional com¬ 
pensation, I would cause their heads and privates to be shaved, 
which was what they seemed most to desire. On their leaving 
us I bore away for several other canoes which were lanched from 
the different coves with which the coast was indented, but nothing 
