TIIE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
the king. It confined of three pretty large houfes, fttuated 1777. 
upon a riling ground, or rather juft by the brink of it, with , -^ ne ' , 
a fmall one, at fome diftance, all ranged longitudinally. The 
middle houfe of the three firft, was by much the largeft, 
and placed in a fquare, twenty-four paces by twenty-eight, 
raifed about three feet. The other houfes were placed on 
little mounts, raifed artificially to the fame height. The 
floors of thefe houfes, as alfo the tops of the mounts round 
them, were covered with loofe, fine pebbles, and the whole 
was incloled by large flat ftones * of hard coral rock, pro¬ 
perly hewn, placed on their edges; one of which ftones mea- 
fured twelve feet in length, two in breadth, and above one 
in thicknefs. One of the houfes, contrary to what we had * 
feen before, was open on one fide ; and within it were two 
rude, wooden bufts of men; one near the entrance, and the 
other farther in. On inquiring of the natives, who had 
followed us to the ground, but durft not enter here, What 
thefe images were intended for ? they made us as fenfible 
as we could wilh, that they were merely memorials of fome 
Chiefs who had been buried there, and not the reprefenta- 
tions of any deity. Such monuments, it fliould feem, are 
feldom raifed; for thefe had, probably, been eredted fe- 
veral ages ago. We were told, that the dead had been bu¬ 
ried in each of thefe houfes ; but no marks of this ap¬ 
peared. In one of them, was the carved head of an Ota- 
heite canoe, which had been driven afhore on their coaft, 
and depofited here. At the foot of the rifing ground, was 
a large area, or grafs-plot, with different trees planted about 
it; amongft which were feveral of thofe called etoa 3 very 
large. Thefe, as they referable the cyprefs, had a fine ef- 
* The burying-places of the Chiefs at the Caroline I Hands, are alfo inclofed in this 
manner. See Lettres Edifiantes & Curieufes , Tom. xv. p. 309. 
Vol. I. S f fedl 
