THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
41 
offerings of fruits, and other vegetables, are laid. But the 1777. 
animals are depofited on a fmaller one, already mentioned, t ^ c P tember ; 
and the human facrifices are buried under different parts of 
the pavement. There are feveral other reliques which igno¬ 
rant fuperftition had fcattered about this place; fuch as frnall 
ftones, raifed in different parts of the pavement; fome with 
bits of cloth tied round them; others covered with it; and 
upon the fide of the large pile, which fronts the area, are 
placed a great many pieces of carved wood, which are fup- 
pofed to be fometimes the relidence of their divinities, and, 
confequently, held facred. But one place, more particular 
than the reft, is a heap of ftones, at one end of the large 
whatta , before which the facrifice was offered, with a kind 
of platform at one fide. On this are laid the fculls of all the 
human facrifices, which are taken up after they have been 
feveral months under ground. Juft above them, are placed 
a great number of the pieces of wood; and it was alfo 
here, where the maro, and the other bundle, fuppofed to 
contain the god Ooro (and which I call the ark), were laid, 
during the ceremony; a circumftance which denotes its 
agreement with the altar of other nations. 
It is much to be regretted, that a practice fo horrid in its 
own nature, and fo deftrudtive of that inviolable right of 
felf-prefervation, which every one is born with, fhould be 
found ftill exifting ; and (fuch is the power of fuperftition 
to counteract the firft principles of humanity!) exifting 
amongft a people, in many other refpedts, emerged from 
the brutal manners of favage life. What is ftill worfe, it is 
probable, that thefe bloody rites of worfhip are prevalent 
throughout all the wide-extended iHands of the Pacific 
Ocean. The fimilarity of cuftoms and language, which 
our late voyages have enabled us to trace, between the moft 
^ 0L * II* G diftant 
