sion of their country by Porter has alone
furnished them with ample provocation; and I can sympathize in the spirit
which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with
the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his
back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.

As to the origin of the enmity of this particular clan towards the
neighbouring tribes, I cannot so confidently speak. I will not say that
their foes are the aggressors, nor will I endeavour to palliate their
conduct. But surely, if our evil passions must find vent, it is far better
to expend them on strangers and aliens, than in the bosom of the community
in which we dwell. In many polished countries civil contentions, as well
as domestic enmities, are prevalent, at the same time that the most
atrocious foreign wars are waged. How much less guilty, then, are our
islanders, who of these three sins are only chargeable with one, and that
the least criminal!

The reader will, ere long, have reason to suspect that the Typees are not
free from the guilt of cannibalism; and he will then, perhaps, charge me
with admiring a people against whom so odious a crime is chargeable. But
this only enormity in their character is not half so horrible as it is
usually described. According to the popular fictions, the crews of
vessels, shipwrecked on some barbarous coast, are eaten alive like so many
dainty joints by the uncivil inhabitants; and unfortunate voyagers are
lured into smiling and treacherous bays; knocked on the head with
outlandish war-clubs; and served up without any preliminary dressing. In
truth, so horrific and improbable are these accounts, that many sensible
and well-informed people will not believe that any cannibals exist; and
place every book of voyages which purports to give any account of them, on
the same shelf with Blue Beard and Jack the Giant-killer. While others,
implicitly crediting the most extravagant fictions, firmly believe that
there are people in the world with tastes so depraved, that they would
infinitely prefer a single mouthful of material humanity to a good dinner
of roast beef and plum pudding. But here, Truth, who loves to be centrally
located, is again found between the two extremes; for cannibalism to a
certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes
in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone; and
horrible and fearfu