THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



by feveral perfons in England about Chriftmas 1780, and '779 



13 



found perfectly found and wholefome *. 



I fhall now return to our tranfactions on fhore at the 

 obfervatory, where we had not been long fettled, before we 

 difcovered, in our neighbourhood, the habitations of a fo~ 

 ciety of priefts, whofe regular attendance at the Moral had 

 excited our curiofity. Their huts ftood round a pond of 

 water, and were furrounded by a grove of cocoa-nut trees 

 which feparated them from the beach and the reft of the 

 village, and gave the place an air of religious retiremenr. 

 On my acquainting Captain Cook, with thefe circumftances, 

 he refolved to pay them a vifit; and as he expected to be 

 received in the fame manner as before, he brought Mr. 

 Webber wih him to make a drawing of the ceremony f. 



On his atrival at the beach, he was conducted to a facred 

 building called Harre-wOrono, or the houfe of Orono, and 

 feated before the entrance, at the foot of a wooden idol, of 

 the fame kind with thofe on the Moral. I was here again 

 made to fupport one of his arms, and after wrapping him 

 in red cloth, Kaireekeea, accompanied by twelve priefls, 



* Since thefe papers were prepared for the prefs, I have been informed by Mr. 

 Vancouver, who was one of my MidShipmen in the Difcovery, and was afterward 

 appointed Lieutenant of the Martin floop of war, that he tried the method here recom- 

 mended, both with Englifh and Spaniih pork, during a cruize on the SpaniSh Main, 

 fti the year 1782, and Succeeded to the utmofi of his expectations. He alfo made the 

 experiment at Jamaica with the beef Served by the victualling office to the Ships, but 

 not with the fame fuccefs, which he attributes to the want of the neceflary precautions 

 in killing and handling the beafts ; to their being hung up and opened before they had 

 fufEcient time to bleed, by which means the blood- veflcls were expofed to. the air, and 

 the blood condenfed before it had time to empty itfelf; and to their being hard driven 

 and bruifed. He adds, that having himfelf attended to the killing of an ox, which was 

 carefully taken on board the Martin, he faked a part of it, which at the end of the 

 week was found to have taken the fait completely, and he has no doubt would have 

 Jcept for any length of time ; but the experiment was not tried. 



t- ; See Plate,. Number LXI. 



i. madft. 



January. 



