106 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
annoyed the whole time of my absence; but being sheltered from 
the stones and short of ammunition, they had not fired on the ene¬ 
my. This fort was situated exactly half-way up the valley; to 
return by the road we descended the hill would have been impos¬ 
sible, it became therefore necessary to go to the beach, where I 
•was informed that the difficulty of ascending the mountains would 
not be so great; many were exhausted with fatigue, and began to 
feel the cravings of hunger, and I directed a halt, that all might 
rest and refresh themselves. After resting about half an hour I 
directed the Indians to take care of our wounded: we formed the 
line of march and proceeded down the valley, and in our route de¬ 
stroyed several other villages, at all of which we had some skir¬ 
mishing with the enemy. At one of those places, situated at the 
foot of a steep hill, they rolled enormous stones down, with a view 
of crushing us to death, but they did us no injury. The number 
of villages destroyed amounted to ten, and the destruction of trees 
and plants and the plunder carried off by the Indians is almost in¬ 
credible. The Typees fought us to the last, and even at first har- 
rassed our rear on our return; but parties left in ambush soon put 
a stop to any further annoyance. We at length came to the formi¬ 
dable fort which checked our career on our first day’s enterprize, 
and although I had witnessed many instances of the great exer¬ 
tion and ingenuity of these islanders, I never had supposed them 
capable of contriving and erecting a work like this, so well cal¬ 
culated for strength and defence. It formed the segment of a cir¬ 
cle, and was about fifty yards in extent, built of large stones, six 
feet thick at the bottom, and gradually narrowing at the top to 
give it strength and durability. On the left was a narrow entrance 
merely sufficient to admit of one person’s entering, and served as 
a sally port; but to enter this from the outside, it was necessary to 
pass directly under the wall for one half its length, as an impene¬ 
trable thicket prevented the approach to it in any other direction. 
The wings and rear were equally guarded, and the right was 
flanked by another fortification of greater magnitude and equal 
strength and ingenuity. 
In their fortifications consisted the strength of the Typees: 
the usual fighting place with the other tribes was on the plain 
near the beach, and although they had frequently been engaged 
