SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
25 
ing to adoration ; and Captain King, not comprehending the 
meaning of the repetitions of his name, supposed it to be 
the title of the chief priest. But it was at Hawaii that 
the simple natives paid the highest honours to him whom 
they imagined to be their guardian spirit 
The king was absent in Maui, endeavouring to settle 
the succession to the Island in favour of his daughter-in- 
law; but Ivaoo, the chief priest, and his son Oneeah, who 
appears to have been the priest of Bono, received Captain 
Cook with honours they really meant for divine, and which 
he imagined meant nothing more than friendly respect, and 
perhaps fear on account of his large and powerful vessels. 
Scarcely were the ships anchored when a priest entered, 
and decorating Cook with red cloth, such as adorned the 
deities, offered him a pig in the manner of sacrifice, and 
pronounced a long, though, to the English, unintelligible 
discourse. In it the word Orono j- was frequently repeated, 
and doubtless the captain was hailed as the god returned 
* The morais were both temples and repositories for the dead. Garcilasso 
de la Vega, in his Conquest of Florida, mentions that the temples were reposi¬ 
tories for the dead, and also treasuries for the reception of the more costly 
goods of the Indians. 
f Captain King says, “ Captain Cook generally went by this name among 
the natives, but we never could learn its meaning precisely.” He seems doubt¬ 
ful whether it meant a heavenly spirit or an incarnate deity; but in the sense in 
which it was then applied it was both. 
E 
