112 OTAHITE TO OHETEROA CHAP, VI 
The Gothic arch of which it consisted was supported on one 
side by twenty-six, and on the other by thirty pillars, 
or rather clumsy thick posts of about two feet high and 
one thick; most of these were carved with the heads 
of men, boys, or other devices, as the rough fancy and 
rougher workmanship of these stone-hatchet-furnished gentry 
suggested and executed. The flats were filled with very 
fine bread-fruit trees and an infinite number of cocoanuts, 
upon which latter the inhabitants seem to depend much 
more than those of Otahite; we saw, however, large spaces 
occupied by lagoons and salt swamps, upon which neither 
bread-fruit nor cocoanut would thrive. 
18th. This morning we went to take a further view of a 
building which we had seen yesterday, and admired a good 
deal, taking with us Tupia’s boy Tayeto (he himself was too 
much engaged with his friends to have time to accompany us). 
The boy told us that the building was called Hwharre no 
Hatua, or the house of the god, but could not explain at all 
the use of it. It consisted of a chest whose lid was nicely 
sewed on, and very neatly thatched over with palm-nut 
leaves; the whole was fixed on two poles by little arches of 
very neatly carved wood. These poles seemed to be used in 
carrying it from place to place, though when we saw it, it was 
supported upon two posts. One end of the chest was open, 
with a round hole within a square one; this was yesterday 
stopped up with a piece of cloth, which, lest I should offend 
the people, I left untouched; but to-day the cloth, and 
probably the contents of the chest, were removed, as there 
was nothing at all in it. 
Trade to-day does not go on with any spirit; the people, 
when anything is offered them, will not rely on their own 
judgment, but take the opinion of twenty or thirty people 
about them, a proceeding which takes up much time. 
19th. This morning trade was rather better; we obtained 
three very large hogs and some pigs by producing hatchets, 
which had not been before given, and which we had hoped 
to have had no occasion for in an island not hitherto seen 
by Europeans. 
