12 , 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
selves to me, each with a bread-fruit: with a view of diverting my¬ 
self with their embarrassment, I gave to them two fish-hooks to 
be divided among them: they all agreed to the exchange, but on 
delivering the fish-hooks, one of them swam off with his bread¬ 
fruit, refused to deliver it up, and appeared much pleased with 
the trick he had played me, believing no doubt that it would be 
attended with less difficulty to divide the hooks between two than 
three. The other two seemed to affect anger with their compa¬ 
nion, and made signs for me to pursue and beat him; but as one 
of them had a stick in his hand, I directed him to inflict punish¬ 
ment; this he pretended to do, but it was mere pretence. But 
notwithstanding this friendly intercourse, it was very evident that 
they had strong suspicions of us. They always approached the 
boat with the greatest awe and agitation, and in every instance, 
where articles were presented to them, they shrunk back with 
terror, and retreated to the shore with the utmost precipitation. 
This want of confidence in me, was greatly calculated to lessen 
my confidence in them, and even if the surf had admitted of my 
landing, I should not have considered it advisable to venture 
among them. One among them, however, ventured to raise him ¬ 
self by the side of the boat, and perceiving a pistol lying in the 
stern sheets, showed an evident desire to possess it. It was with 
some difficulty I could make him let go his hold of the boat; and 
to intimidate him I presented the pistol at him; but it produced no 
other effect than joy, as he immediately held out both his hands 
to receive it, from which I concluded that they were unacquaint¬ 
ed with the use of fire arms. 
After remaining with these people about two hours, I pro 
ceeded to a small cove,,two miles to leward, where were assem¬ 
bled about fifty male natives and three females. Some of the men 
were highly ornamented with plumes of black feathers, large gor¬ 
gets similar to those we had before purchased, a kind of cloak 
formed of white cloth, in appearance somewhat like paper; each 
held in his hand a handsome white fan, and had large tufts of hu¬ 
man hair bound round their wrists, their ancles and loins, with 
large white oval ornaments, apparently intended as false ears, with 
large shells and whales’ teeth hung round their necks, and made 
altogether no inelegant appearance. They were all highly tattooed. 
