The cruel invasion 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, and 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.