24<8 cook's first voyage july, 



ten broad, and twenty-four feet high, the whole 

 formed a pointed arch, like those of our old cathe- 

 drals, which was supported on one side by twenty- 

 six, and on the other by thirty pillars, or rather 

 posts, about two feet high, and one thick, upon most 

 of which were rudely carved the heads of men, and 

 several fanciful devices, not altogether unlike those 

 which we sometimes see printed from wooden blocks, 

 at the beginning and end of old books. The plains, 

 or flat part of the country, abounded in bread-fruit, 

 and cocoa-nut trees ; in some places, however, there 

 were salt swamps and lagoons, which would produce 

 neither. 



We went again a-shore on the ISth, and would 

 have taken the advantage of Tupia's company, in 

 our perambulation ; but he was too much engaged 

 with his friends : we took, however, his boy, whose 

 name w^as Tayeto, and Mr. Banks went to take a 

 farther view of what had much engaged his atten- 

 tion before ; it was a kind of chest or ark, the lid of 

 which was nicely sewed on, and thatched very neatly 

 with palm-nut leaves : it was fixed upon two poles, 

 and supported on little arches of wood, very neatly 

 carved ; the use of the poles seemed to be to remove 

 it from place to place, in the manner of our sedan 

 chairs : in one end of it was a square hole, in the 

 middle of which was a ring touching the sides, and 

 leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole 

 within a square one. The first time Mr. Banks saw 

 this coffer, the aperture at the end was stopped with 

 a piece of cloth, which, lest he should give offence, 

 he left untouched ; probably there was then some- 

 thing within, but now the cloth was taken away, and, 

 upon looking into it, it was found empty. The 

 general resemblance between this repository and the 

 Ark of the Lord among the Jews is remarkable -, but 

 it is still more remarkable, that upon inquiring of the 

 boy what it was called, he said, Ewharr^e no EatiiUy 

 the house of the God : he could however give no ac- 



