THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
S3 
foon after their death, they are difembowelled, by drawing 1777. 
the inteftines, and other vifcera , out at the anus ; and the t Sept ^ mber ; 
whole cavity is then filled or fluffed with cloth, introduced 
through the fame part; that when any moiflure appeared 
on the fkin, it was carefully dried up, and the bodies after¬ 
ward rubbed all over, with a large quantity of perfumed 
cocoa-nut oil; which, being frequently repeated, preferved 
them a great many months ; but that, at laft, they gradu¬ 
ally moulder away. This was the information Mr. Ander- 
foil received; for my own part, I could not learn any more 
about their mode of operation, than what Omai told me, 
who faid, that they made ufe of the juice of a plant which 
grows amongfl the mountains ; of cocoa-nut oil; and of 
frequent wafhing with fea-water. I was alfo told, that the 
bodies of all their great men, who die a natural death, are 
preferved in this manner; and that they expofe them to 
public view for a very confiderable time after. At firfl, 
they are laid out every day, when it does not rain ; after¬ 
ward, the intervals become greater and greater; and, at lall* 
they are feldom to be feen. 
In the evening, we returned from Oparre, where we left 
Otoo, and all the royal family ; and I law none of them till 
the 12th; when all, but the Chief himfelf, paid me a vifit. Friday 1*. 
He, as they told me, was gone to Attahooroo, to affift, this 
day, at another human facrihce, which the Chief of Tiara- 
boo had fent thither to be offered up at the moral. This 
fecond inftance, within the courfe of a few days, was too 
melancholy a proof, how numerous the victims of this 
bloody fuperftition are amongff this humane people. I 
would have been prefent at this facrifice too, had I known 
of it in time; for, now, it was too late. P rom the very 
fame caufe, I miffed being prefent at a public tranfaflion, 
which 
