PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
4 / 
and their property should be secure, and that I should inflict the 
most exemplary punishment on such of my people as should be 
known to impose on a friendly native; but that should a stone be 
thrown, or an article stolen from me or my people, and the offend¬ 
er not be given up to me, I should make the valley a scene of deso¬ 
lation. The old woman was all attention to this discourse as deli¬ 
vered through Wilson the interpreter; and I was about proceeding 
when she requested me to stop. She now rose and commanded 
silence among the multitude, which had considerably augmented 
since my arrival, and addressed them with much grace and ener¬ 
gy in a speech of about half an hour; exhorting them, as I under¬ 
stood, to conduct themselves with propriety, and explaining to 
them the advantages likely to result from a good understanding 
with us. After she had finished, she took me affectionately by the 
hand, and reminded me that I was her husband. I, as usual, jes¬ 
tingly claimed my rights as such; she pointed to her grand-daugh¬ 
ters, and they smiled assent. All alarms now were subsided. I 
inquired for Gattanewa, and was informed that he was at the pub¬ 
lic square rejoicing over the bodies of the slain, but had been sent 
for. I proceeded for the place and met the old man hastening 
home. He had been out from the earliest dawn, and had not broken 
his fast. He held in one hand a cocoa-nut shell, containing a quan¬ 
tity of sour preparation of the bread-fruit, which is highly esteem¬ 
ed by the natives, and in the other a raw fish, which he occasion¬ 
ally dipped into it as he ate it. As soon however as Wilson gave 
him to understand that the practice of eating raw fish was disa¬ 
greeable to me, he wrapped the remainder in a palm leaf, and 
handed it to a youth to keep for him until a more convenient op¬ 
portunity offered for indulging himself. On my way to the square 
I observed several young warriors hastening along towards the 
place armed with their spears, at the ends of which were hung 
plantains, bread-fruit, or cocoa-nuts, intended as offerings to their 
gods; and on my approach to the square, I could hear them beat¬ 
ing their drums and chanting their war-songs. I soon discover- 
ed five or six hundred of them assembled about the dead bodies, 
which were lying on the ground, still attached to the poles with 
which they had been brought from the scene of action. The war¬ 
riors were all armed with their spears, and several large drums 
