76 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
the purpose of describing these vessels, as well as such others as 
are in use among the natives. 
The war canoes of this island differ not much from those alrea* 
dy described as belonging to the natives of the island of Ooahooga 
or Jefferson’s island. They are larger, more splendid, and highly 
ornamented, but the construction is the same, and like them they 
are furnished with outriggers. They are about fifty feet in length, 
two feet in width, and of a proportionate depth; they are formed 
of many pieces, and each piece, and indeed each paddle, has its 
separate proprietor: to one belongs the piece projecting from the 
stern, to another the part forming the bow, the pieces forming the 
sides belong to different persons, and when a canoe is taken to 
pieces the whole is scattered throughout the valley, and divided, 
perhaps, among twenty families; each has the right of disposing 
of the part belonging to him, and when she is to be set up every 
one brings his piece with materials for securing it; and the setting 
up of a war canoe goes on with the same order and regularity as 
all their other operations. These canoes are owned only among 
the Wealthy and respectable families, and are rarely used but for the 
purposes of war or for pleasure, or when the chief persons of one 
tribe make a visit to another; in such cases they are richly orna¬ 
mented with locks of human hair intermixed with bunches of gray 
beard strung from the stem projection to the place raised for the 
steersman. These ornaments are in the greatest estimation among 
them, and a bunch of gray beard is in their estimation what the fea¬ 
thers of the ostrich or heron or the richest plumage would be in 
ours. The seat of the Coxswain is highly ornamented with palm 
leaves and white cloth; he is gayly dressed and richly ornament¬ 
ed with plumes; the chief is seated on an elevation in the middle 
of the canoe, and a person fancifully dressed in the bow, which has 
the additional ornaments of pearl-shells strung on cocoa-nut 
branches raised in the fore part of the canoe. She is worked alto¬ 
gether by paddles, and those who work them are placed, two on 
a seat, and give their strokes with great regularity, shouting oc¬ 
casionally to regulate the time and encourage one another. These 
vessels, when collected in a fleet and in motion, with all their 
rowers* exerting themselves have a splendid and warlike appear¬ 
ance. They were paraded repeatedly for my inspection, and in all 
