PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
€9 
®f his life scramble over the loose stones of a wall in preference 
to going through the gate-way. The matt on which Gattanewa 
reposes is held in such respect, that it cannot be touched by a fe¬ 
male, not even by his wife and family, whose matts in turn are ta¬ 
booed for those of an inferior class. Indeed there are women, and 
some of the handsomest on the island, whose parents are consid¬ 
ered wealthy and respectable, but they dare not walk or sit on a 
matt, they are not of royal blood, and this is a prerogative which 
seems confined to them. 
Gattanewa has his servants, who perform for him and his fami¬ 
ly many domestic services, such as cooking, bringing water, 
See. it does not appear, however, that he has any claims on their 
services, he gives them food, and as long as it suits them they 
stay; they mix with his family, occupy the same room, and a 
stranger on entering the house of Gattanewa, would not know 
him from one of his domestics. 
By the time our village was completed, every thing had been 
taken out of the frigate; the powder and provisions deposited on 
board the prizes, and the ship had been thoroughly smoaked with 
charcoal, to destroy the rats, which, on opening the hatches, were 
found in great numbers dead about the large pots in which the 
fires were made: several tubs full of them were collected and 
thrown overboard, and it was supposed that exclusive of the young, 
which were killed in the nests and could not be found, we did 
not destroy a less number than from twelve to fifteen hundred. 
The caulking and other repairs of the ship went on with much 
expedition and regularity, and among other defects we found her 
main-top-mast in a very decayed state; we were however enabled 
to replace it with a spare one on board, and every thing promised 
that we should not meet with many embarrassments or delays. 
As soon, however, as our painting commenced we felt the want 
of oil. We caught two remarkably large sharks, and endeavoured 
to substitute the oil extracted from their livers, but found it would 
not answer; we next tried black-fish oil, but it did not succeed: 
fortunately finding a small quantity of the oil of the black-whale 
on board our prizes, we found it answered nearly as well to paint 
as that which is extracted from flax-seed and generally known by 
the name of linseed oil; with this we were enabled to improve the 
