PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
53 
Haii was, no doubt, some navigator, who, near four centuries 
ago, left the aforesaid animals among the natives. Our accounts 
of voyages made into this sea do not extend so far back, and even 
if they did, we should be at a loss to know him from the name gi¬ 
ven to him by the natives. We found it impossible for them to 
pronounce our names distinctly, even after the utmost pains to 
teach them, and the most repeated trials on their part. They 
gave me the name of Ofiotee , which was the nearest they could 
come to Porter. Mr. Downes was called Onou; lieutenant Wi'l- 
mer, Wooreme ; lieutenant M‘Knight, Mucheetie , and the name 
of every one else underwent an equal change. These names we 
were called by and answered to so long as we remained with them; 
and it is not improbable that we shall be so called in their tradi¬ 
tionary accounts. If there should be no other means of hand¬ 
ing our names down to posterity it is likely we shall be as little 
known to future navigators as Haii is to us. Although we know 
not the navigator who, at that early period, (it is possible, howev¬ 
er, that there may be some error in the chronology of the natives) 
visited these islands, yet we cannot be so much at a loss to disco¬ 
ver the nation to which he belonged: the natives call a hog bou - 
arka , or rather Pouarka; and it is likely that they still retain the 
name nearly by which they were first known to them. The Spa¬ 
niards call a hog fiorca , giving it a sound very little different from 
that given by the natives of these islands; and as the Spaniards 
were the earliest navigators in these seas, there is scarcely a doubt 
that they are indebted to one of that nation for so precious a gift. 
The cocoa-nuts grow in great abundance in every valley of 
the island, and are cultivated with much care. This tree is too 
well known to need a description; yet the mode used to propagate 
it may not be uninteresting. As the cocoa-nuts become ripe, they 
are carefully collected from the tree, which is ascended by means 
of a slip of strong bark, with which they make their feet fast a lit¬ 
tle above the ankles, leaving them about a foot asunder: they then 
grasp the tree with their arms, feet, and knees, and the strip of 
bark resting on the rough projections of the bark of the tree, pre¬ 
vents them from slipping down: in this manner, by alternately 
shifting their feet and hands, they ascend with great apparent ease 
and rapidity the highest tree, whence they send down the fruit, 
