; AVOYAGETO 



liich had been collected on the fhore, retired at our ap- 



January. v 



... ^.—.^ proach ; and not a perfon was to be feen, except a few lying 

 proflrate on the ground, near the huts of the adjoining 

 village. 



Before I proceed to relate trie adoration that was paid to 

 Captain Cook, and the peculiar ceremonies with which he 

 was received on this fatal iiland, it will be neceflary to dc- 

 fcribe the Moral, fituated, as I have already mentioned, at 

 the South fide of the beach at Kakooa. It was a fquare folid 

 pile of flones, about forty yards long, twenty broad, and 

 fourteen in height. The top was flat, and well paved, and fur- 

 rounded by a wooden rail, on which were fixed the fculls of 

 the captives, facrificed on the death of their chiefs. In the 

 centre of the area, flood a ruinous old building of wood, 

 connected with the rail, on each fide, by a ftone wall, which 

 divided the whole fpace into two parts. On the fide next 

 the country, were five poles, upward of twenty feet high, 

 fupporting an irregular kind of fcaffold ; on the oppofite 

 fide, toward the fea, flood two fmall houfes, with a covered 

 communication. 



We were conducted by Koah to the top of this pile by 

 an eafy afcent, leading from the beach to the North Well 

 corner of the area. At the entrance, we faw two lirge 

 wooden images, with features violently diftorted, and a 

 long piece of carved wood, of a conical form inverted, riling 

 from the top of their heads ; the red was without form, and 

 wrapped round with red cloth. We were here met by a 

 tall young man with a long beard, who prefentcd Captain 

 Cook to the images, and after chanting a kind of hymn, 

 in which he was joined by Koah, they led us to that end of 

 •the Morai, where the five poles were fixed. At the foot of 



them 



