hbours across the mountain
barriers.[2] Of these tribes the most famous were the warlike and
dreaded Taipiis or Typees, who occupied a beautiful valley at the
eastern end of Nukahiva, and in their mountain fastness deemed
themselves inaccessible to their enemies. However, in the early part of
the nineteenth century an American naval officer, Captain David Porter,
succeeded, not without great difficulty, in carrying havoc and
devastation into these sylvan scenes.[3] Later in the century a runaway
American sailor, Hermann Melville, spent more than four months as a
captive in the tribe, and published an agreeable narrative of his
captivity; but never having mastered the language, he was not able to
give much exact information concerning the customs and beliefs of the
natives.[4] As there is no maritime plain interposed between the
mountains and the shore, the only way of passing from one valley to
another is either to go by sea or to clamber over the intervening
ridges. It would be materially impossible, we are told, unless at
enormous and ruinous cost, to make a road or even a mule-path round any
of the Marquesas Islands, as has been done in Tahiti.[5]

[2] As to the formation and scenery of the islands, see
Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 110; C. S. Stewart, _Visit to the
South Seas_ (London, 1832), i. 193 _sqq._; F. D. Bennett,
_Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe_ (London, 1840),
i. 299 _sqq._; H. Melville, _Typee_, pp. 8 _sq._, 17 _sq._, and
_passim_ (_Everyman's Library_); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.
Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 138 _sq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes,
_op. cit._ pp. 84 _sq._; Clavel, _Les Marquisiens_ (Paris, 1885)
pp. 1 _sq._; C. E. Meinicke, _op. cit._ ii. 236 _sq._; F. H. H.
Guillemard, _op. cit._ pp. 522 _sq._; A. Baessler, _Neue
Suedsee-Bilder_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 192 _sq._, 220 _sqq._ As to
the extreme difficulty of scaling the mountains and precipices
to pass from one valley to another, see particularly M.
Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_ (Paris, 1882), pp. 101 _sq._,
note.

[3] Captain David Porter, _Journal of a Cruise made to the
Pacific Ocean_, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 86 _sqq._

[4] H. Melville, _Typee_ (London, _Everyman's Library_, no
date). The first edition of this book was published in 1846.
Melville's residence among the Taipiis (Typees) fell in the year
1841.

[5] P. E. Eyriaud des