THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 405 



" tlon, meaning to pay a compliment, expreffive of their 

 *' confeffion of our fuperiority over theinfelves), are alfo 

 " fubjei5l to the power and dominion of. GookhoJ'^ His 

 country, the general receptacle of the dead, according to 

 their mythology, was never fcen by any perfon ; and yet, 

 it feems, they know that it lies to the Weilward of Feejee ;, 

 and that they who are once tranfporccd thither, live for 

 ever; or, to ufe their own expreflion, are not fubject to 

 death again ; but feafl upon all the favourite products of 

 their own country, with which this everlafting abode is 

 fuppofed to abound. As to the fouls of the lower fort of 

 people, they undergo a fort of tranfmigration ; or, as they 

 fay, are eat up by a bird called hat a, which walks upon 

 their graves for that pvirpofc. 



I think I may venture to aflert, that they do not worfliip- 

 any thing that is the work of their own hands, or any vi- 

 iible part of the creation. They do not make offerings of 

 hogs, dogs, and fruit, as at Otaheite, unlefs it be emblem- 

 atically ; for their morals were perfecfhly free from every, 

 thing of the kind. But that they offer real human facrifices, 

 is, with me, beyond a doubt. Their morals, orjiatookas (for 

 they are called by both names, but moflly by the latter), 

 are, as at Otaheite, and many other parts of the world, bu- 

 rying-grounds, and places of worfliip ; though fome of 

 them feemed to be only appropriated to the firft purpofe ; 

 but thefe were fmall, and, in every other refpeift, inferior 

 to the others. 



^ Of the nature of their government, we know no more than 

 the general outline. A fubordination is ellabliflied among 

 them, that refembles the feudal fyflem of our progenitors 

 in Europe. But of its fubdivifions, of the conflituent parts, 



and 



