CHAPTER XIV. 
Madison’s island. 
The hogs of this island are generally of a small and inferior 
breed, but there are many as large and as fine as those of any part 
of the world. The practice of castrating the boars, at which the 
natives are very dextrous, greatly improves their size and ap¬ 
pearance as well as their flavour; the pork is remarkably sweet and 
delicate, and although many of the smaller kind of hogs were 
brought to us during our stay, which we rarely killed, the larger 
ones were brought in such numbers toward the latter part of our 
stay as to enable me to feed my people entirely on fresh provi¬ 
sions. Of the larger size of hogs six were found fully sufficient 
to furnish an ample daily supply to four hundred men. 
According to the traditions of the natives, more than twenty 
generations ago,* a god named Haii visited all the islands of the 
group, and brought with him hogs and fowls, which he left among 
them. He first appeared at Hataootooa Bay, which lies on the E, 
side of the island, and there dug for water, which he found: the 
tree under which he resided, during his stay, is held sacred by the 
natives, and is called by them Haii. They cannot tell whether he 
came in a ship or a canoe, nor can they tell how long he remain- 
ed among them. 
It may be worthy of remark here that the natives call a white 
man Othouah , their gods bear the same appellation, as do their 
priests after their death: a white man is viewed by them as a be¬ 
ing superior to themselves, but our weaknesses and passions have 
served to convince them that we are like them human. Yet in 
the comparison every thing in their opinion marks our superiority. 
* It must be observed that a man is here a grandfather at the age of fif¬ 
ty, and sometimes much less: hence three generations exist within that period 
which would make, agreeable to their computation, about three hundred or 
three hundred and thirty years. 
