PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
7 
I shall probably have occasion to speak hereafter of their art in 
healing wounds; but I must now, while on the subject of fractur¬ 
ed skulls, mention a practice which is pursued by them, and may 
be common elsewhere, although I never heard of it. Whenever 
the skull is cracked, the bone is laid bare, and the fracture traced 
to its end, and there a small hole is drilled through the skull to 
prevent the crack from going any farther. This practice is pur¬ 
sued wherever the fracture branches off in rays. If there are 
any loose pieces of bones, they are carefully laid in their places, 
the wound is bound up with certain herbs, the virtue of which is 
known to them, and nature, a temperate mode of living, and a 
good constitution, do the rest. They have their professed sur¬ 
geons and physicians among them; but they have much more con¬ 
fidence in our skill than in their own. 
On the 28 th October Gattanewa, with several of the warriors, 
came to inform me that the gun was at the foot of the mountain, 
where I had directed it to be carried, and that it would have reach¬ 
ed the summit by the time our people could get up there. When 
I viewed the mountains, and imagined the difficulties they would 
have to surmount, I could scarcely credit the account they gave 
me; and yet I could not conceive any motive they could have for 
deception. I informed them that, on the next morning at day 
light, forty men, with their muskets, would be on shore and in 
readiness to march; and as I supposed it would be impossible for 
our people to scale the mountains, when incumbered with their 
arms, I desired them to send me forty Indians for the purpose of 
carrying their muskets, and an equal number to carry provisions 
as well as ammunition for the six pounder, which they promis¬ 
ed me should be done, and every arrangement was made accor¬ 
dingly, and the command of the expedition given to lieutenant 
Downes. I was this afternoon visited by Taihea-taioa, the wife of 
Gattanewa, accompanied by several of her daughters and grand¬ 
daughters. Every object about the camp seemed to excite in 
them the most lively attentions, but none more so than the sheep 
and goats, which they call boarka , which is the name for a hog. 
The Gallapagoes tortoises they called manu , which is the name of 
a sea tortoise. The different occupations in which our people were 
employed, seemed greatly to excite their astonishment. They 
