PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
21 
with me, as well as every other person. He became indispensably 
necessary to us; and without his aid I should have succeeded bad¬ 
ly on the island. His knowledge of the people, and the ease with 
which he spoke their language, removed all difficulties in our in¬ 
tercourse with them; and it must be understood, in all relations of 
future interviews and conversations, which took place between 
me and the natives, that Wilson is the o'rgan of communication, 
and the means by which we are enabled to understand each other: 
I shall, therefore, in future, deem it unnecessary to say, I was as¬ 
sisted by an interpreter; it must always be understood that I had one. 
On my jumping on shore, unaccompanied by any other per¬ 
sons, and walking up to a group of natives, who were assem¬ 
bled near the house where Mr. Maury resided, all their appre¬ 
hensions seemed to cease: the women, who had retired to a distance, 
came down to join the male natives; and even the landing of the 
marines, as well as the rest of the party, did not seem to occasion 
any uneasiness among them. The drum appeared to give them 
much pleasure; and the regular movements of the marines occa¬ 
sioned much astonishment. They said they were spirits or beings 
of a class different from other men. I directed them to be put 
through their exercise; and the firing of the muskets occasioned but 
Tittle terror, except among the women, who generally turned away 
their faces and covered their ears with their hands. The men and 
boys were all attention to the skipping of the balls in the water; 
but at every fire all habitually inclined their bodies, as if to avoid 
the shot, although behind the men who were firing. After re¬ 
maining a short time with them, I distributed among them some 
knives, fish-hooks, &c. &c. which they received with much ap¬ 
parent pleasure; but no one offered, like the natives of the other 
island, any thing in return. 
Observing the mountains surrounding the valley to be covered 
with numerous groups of natives, I inquired the cause, and was 
informed that a warlike tribe residing beyond the mountains had 
been for several weeks at war with the natives of the valley, into 
which they had made several incursions, and had destroyed many 
houses and plantations, and had killed, by cutting around the bark, 
a great number of bread-fruit trees. I was also informed they 
had intended paying another visit that day; but it was supposed 
