THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 313 



five, and feemins-ly of more confequence, than any we had ^vi- 



. June. 



feen at the other iflands. We were told, that it belonged to 

 the king. It conlifted of three pretty large houfes, fituated 

 upon arifing ground, or rather juft by the brink of it, with 

 a fmall one, at fome diftance, all ranged longitudinally. 

 The middle houfe of the three firft, was, by much, the 

 largeft, and placed in a fquare* twenty-four paces by twenty- 

 eight, raifed about three feet. The other houfes were 

 placed on little mounts, raifed artificially to the fame height. 

 The floors of thefe houfes, as alfo the tops of the mounts 

 round them, were covered with loofe, fine pebbles, and the 

 whole was inclofed by large flat ftones * of hard coral rock, 

 properly hewn, placed on their edges ; one of which ftones 

 meafured twelve feet in length, two in breadth, and above 

 one in thicknefs. One of the houfes, contrary to what we 

 had feen before, was open on one fide ; and within it were 

 two rude, wooden bufts of men ; one near the entrance, 

 and the other farther in. On inquiring of the natives, who 

 had followed us to the ground, but durft not enter here. 

 What thefe images were intended for? they made us as 

 fenfible as we could wifli, that they were merely memorials 

 of fome Chiefs who had been buried there, and not the re- 

 prefentations of any deity. Such monuments, it fliould 

 feem, are feldom raifed ; for thefe had, probably, been 

 ere(5ted feveral ages ago. We were told, that the dead had 

 been buried in each of thefe houfes ; but no marks of this 

 appeared. In one of them, was the carved head of an Ota- 

 heite canoe, which had been driven afliOre on their coaft, 

 and depofited here. At the foot of the rifing ground, was 

 a large area, or grafs--plot, with diflerent trees planted about 



^ * The burying-places of the Chiefs at the Caroline Iflands, are alfo inclofed ia 

 this manner. See Lettres Ed'ifianUs ^ Curieufes, Tom, xv. p. 309. 



Vol. I. Sf itj 



