70 
ELLICE’S AND KINGSMILL GROUP. 
they pointed in a direction west of north, and called it Maraki,— 
Matthew’s Island; and the other Taritari and Makin, which they said 
were two days’ sail, and which was believed to be Pitt’s Island. 
In the centre of the little village was one of the sacred stones, which 
was described by Kirby as an object of worship. It consisted of a flat 
slab of coral rock, about three feet high and two wide, set up on end and 
dressed with a thick wreath of cocoanut-leaves. It was placed in the 
centre of a circular platform of sand and pebbles, about nine feet in 
diameter, raised five or six inches above the soil, and surrounded by a 
ring of stones. At the foot of the coral slab were several large cocoa- 
nuts, placed there as an offering to the divinity, whom the natives 
styled Tabu-eriki. The wood-cut at the end of the next chapter is a 
drawing of one. The priest, a young man, with a mild and intelligent 
countenance, remained constantly near the stone, never quitting the 
platform for a moment. The houses were built like those of Drum¬ 
mond’s Island, but the scuttles into the lofts were much larger, occa¬ 
sionally occupying half the dividing floor. In some of the houses there 
were two or three floors or stages, the second about two feet above the 
first. 
In the survey of this island the tender got aground inside the lagoon. 
The moment that it was discovered by the natives that the vessel was 
on shore, they began to flock around her, and were only kept off by 
being fired at. Lieutenant Emmons did not join her with the boats till 
after dark, when he found her situation such as to require great vigi¬ 
lance on the part of the officers and men to preserve her. She had 
taken the coral reef at high water, and the tide was rapidly falling, 
leaving her on her bilge, and rendering her guns of no use for protec¬ 
tion. The natives were making signals by burning fires, blowing war- 
conchs, and evincing every disposition to attack her. 
Captain Hudson, who observed the situation of the tender at sunset, 
determined to keep the Peacock close to the island throughout the 
night, to be near at hand to despatch boats in case of signal being 
made that they required more aid, should the natives show a disposi¬ 
tion to make an attack, and overpower the force that had already gone 
to the tender’s assistance. The Peacock was hove-to, with a moderate 
breeze blowing, and from the fires seen during the night they believed 
themselves close to the position they had taken at sunset. At daylight, 
while lying-to, they drifted on a coral sand-bank, where the ship was 
aground for a few minutes only. Their surprise was great when they 
found that it was Tarawa or Knox’s Island, on which they were 
ashore, on its northwest side, and that they had drifted fully twelve 
miles by current to the southward during the night. On board of the 
