ofty 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 Roohka, 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 deg. 38{~PRIME~} and 9 deg. 32{~PRIME~} south latitude, and 139 deg. 20{~PRIME~} and
140 deg. 10{~PRIME~} 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 they
were first beheld by white