 from the galley,
and Boatswain, the dog, leaped up between the knight-heads, and barked most
furiously. Land ho! Ay, there it was. A hardly perceptible blue irregular
outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty heights of Nukuheva.
    This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is by some
navigators considered as forming one of a distinct cluster, comprising the
islands of Ruhooka, Ropo, and Nukuheva; upon which three the appellation of the
Washington Group has been bestowed. They form a triangle, and lie within the
parallels of 8°38'' and 9°32'' south latitude, and 139°20' and 140°10' west
longitude, from Greenwich. With how little propriety they are to be regarded as
forming a separate group will be at once apparent, when it is considered that
they lie in the immediate vicinity of the other islands, that is to say, less
than a degree to the north-west of them; that their inhabitants speak the
Marquesan dialect, and that their laws, religion, and general customs are
identical. The only reason why they were ever thus arbitrarily distinguished,
may be attributed to the singular fact, that their existence was altogether
unknown to the world until the year 1791, when they were discovered by Captain
Ingraham, of Boston, Massachusetts, nearly two centuries after the discovery of
the adjacent islands by the agent of the Spanish viceroy. Notwithstanding this,
I shall follow the example of most voyagers, and treat of them as forming part
and parcel of the Marquesas.
    Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the only one at which
ships are much in the habit of touching, and is celebrated as being the place
where the adventurous Captain Porter refitted his ships during the late war
between England and the United States, and whence he sallied out upon the large
whaling fleet then sailing under the enemy's flag in the surrounding seas. This
island is about twenty miles in length, and nearly as many in breadth. It has
three good harbours on its coast, the largest and best of which is called by the
people living in its vicinity, Tyohee, and by Captain Porter was denominated
Massachusetts Bay. Among the adverse tribes dwelling about the shores of the
other bays, and by all voyagers, it is generally known by the name bestowed upon
the island itself - Nukuheva. Its inhabitants have become somewhat corrupted,
owing to their recent commerce with Europeans; but so far as regards their
peculiar customs, and general mode of life, they retain their original primitive
character, remaining very nearly in the same state of nature in which
