THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
339 
I did not much like this rehridtion; and, therefore, hole 
out, to fee what might now be going forward. I found 
very few people birring, except thofe dreffed to attend the 
ceremony; fome of whom had in their hands fmall poles, 
about four feet long, and to the under-part of thefe were 
fahened two or three other hicks, not bigger than one’s 
finger, and about fix inches in length. Thefe men were 
going toward the moral juh mentioned. I took the fame 
road, and was, feveral times, hopped by them, all crying 
out taboo. However, I went forward, without much regard¬ 
ing them, till I came in fight of the moral , and of the people 
who were fitting before it. I was now urged, very hrongly, 
to go back; and, not knowing what might be the confe- 
quence of a refufal, I complied. I had obferved, that the 
people, who carried the poles, paffed this moral , or what I 
may, as well, call temple ; and guefling, from this circum- 
hance, that fomething was tranfacling beyond it, which 
might be worth looking at, I had thoughts of advancing, 
by making a round, for this purpofe; but I was fo clofely 
watched by three men, that I could not put my defign in 
execution. In order to fhake thefe fellows off, I returned 
to the malaee , where I had left the king, and, from thence, 
made an elopement a fecond time; but I inhantly met with 
the fame three men; fo that it feemed, as if they had been 
ordered to watch my motions. I paid no regard to what 
they faid or did, till I came within fight of the king’s prin¬ 
cipal fiatooka or moral , which I have already defcribedf, be¬ 
fore which a great number of men were fitting, being the 
fame perfons whom I had juh before feen pals by the other 
moral , from which this was but a little dihant. Obferving, 
that I could watch the proceedings of this company from 
* See p. 313. 
X x 1. 
the 
