PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
91 
Finding that it was absolutely necessary to bring the Typees 
to terms, or endanger our good understanding with the other 
tribes, I resolved to endeavour to bring about a negotiation with 
them, and to back it with a force sufficient to intimidate them. 
On the 27th November I informed the Taeehs and Happahs 
that I should next day go to war with the Typees, agreeable to 
my original plan, and directed Gattanewa to proceed on board the 
Essex Junior, with two persons who went to perform the office of 
embassadors, and on the arrival of the ship in their bay, were to 
be sent to the Typees offering the same terms of peace as were 
accepted by the others. The Essex Junior sailedin the afternoon, 
and I proceeded next morning, at three o’clock, with live boats, 
accompanied by ten war canoes, blowing their conchs as a signal 
by which they could keep together. One of our boats separated 
from the others, passed the bay and did not rejoin us again until 
the middle of the day. We arrived at the Typee landing at sun¬ 
rise, and were joined by ten war canoes from the Happahs; the 
Essex Junior soon after arrived and anchored. The tops of all the 
neighbouring mountains were covered with the Taeeh and Hap- 
pah warriors, armed with their spears, clubs, and slings; the beach 
was covered with the warriors who came with the canoes, and 
who joined us from the hills; our force did not amount to a less 
number than five thousand men, but not a Typee or any of their 
dwellings were to be seen; for the whole length of the beach, ex- 
tending upwards of a quarter of a mile, was a clear level plain 
which extended back about one hundred yards. A high and al¬ 
most impenetrable swampy thicket bordered on this plain, and the 
only trace we could perceive which, we were informed, led to 
the habitations was a narrow pathway which winded through the 
swamp. The canoes were all hauled on the beach, the Taeehs 
on the right, the Happahs on the left, and our four boats in the 
centre. We only waited for reinforcements from the Essex Ju¬ 
nior, our interpreter, our ambassadors, and Gattanewa; and on the 
ship’s anchoring I went on board to hasten them on shore, direct¬ 
ing lieutenant Downes to bring with him fifteen men; these with 
the twenty on shore, I supposed would be fully sufficient to bring 
them to terms. On my return to the beach I found every one in 
arms, the Typees had appeared in the bushes and had pelted our 
■n 
VOL. !I, 
