PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
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tween two stones, and Showed them the flour, which produced from 
them the most joyous exclamations ofmaie! maie! maiel and all be¬ 
gan, to clear away spots for sowing the grain, and bringing me leaves 
and cocoa-nut shells, begging that I would give them some to 
take home to plant When we first arrived at this island, we of¬ 
fered them our ship bread, but they would not eat it, declaring it 
was made of coral rocks, and was no ways to be compared to 
bread-fruit; but after we had got our oven to work, and issued 
fresh bread to the crew, they, particularly the women, became ex¬ 
travagantly fond of it, and there was no favour they would not 
grant, nor any risk they would not run to obtain a small loaf; they 
would swim off to the ships, about meal times, in large shoals, and 
wait there for the sailors to throw them pieces of bread, although 
the harbour was much infested with large and ravenous sharks, 
and one of the natives was devoured by them soon after our arri¬ 
val. A string of beads, highly as they were valued, could be pur¬ 
chased for a loaf; and chiefs after walking many miles over moun¬ 
tains to bring us presents of fruit and hogs, would return well sa¬ 
tisfied, if I presented them a hot roll from the oven. 
I endeavoured to impress them with an idea of the value of 
the seeds I was planting, and explained to them the different 
kinds of fruit they would produce, assuring them of their excel¬ 
lence, and as a farther inducement to them to attend their culti¬ 
vation, I promised them that, on my return, I would give them 
a whale’s tooth for every ripe pumpkin and. mellon they would 
bring me; and to the chiefs of the distant tribes, to whom I dis¬ 
tributed the diffent kinds of seeds, I made the same promise. I 
also gave them several English hogs of a superior breed, which 
they were very anxious to procure. I left in charge of Wil¬ 
son some male and female goats, and as I had a number of 
young Gallapagos tortoises, I distributed several among the chiefs, 
and permitted a great many to escape into the bushes and among 
the grass. 
In one of those excursions, I vras led to the chief place of 
religious ceremony of the valley. It is situated high up the val¬ 
ley of the Havvous, and I regret extremely that I had it not in 
my power to make a correct drawing of it on the spot, as it far 
exceeds in splendour every thing of the kind described by cap- 
