THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 
203 
femblance, between the burying-place we were now vifit- 
ing, and thofe of the iilands w e had lately come from in the 
South Pacific, that we had little doubt in our minds, that the 
refemblance exifted alfo, in the ceremonies pradlifed here, 
and particularly in the horrid one of offering human facri- 
fices. Our fufpicions were too foon confirmed, by diredt 
evidence. For, on coming out of the houfe, juft on one fide 
of the entrance, we faw a finall fquare place, and another 
ftill lefs, near it; and on afking, what thefe were ? Our guide 
immediately informed us, that in the one was buried a man 
who had been facrificed ; a ‘Tauta (Tanata or tfangata , in 
this country) taboo (tafoo , as here pronounced) ; and in the 
other, a hog, which had alfo been made an offering to the 
divinity. At a little diftance from thefe, near the middle of 
the moral , were three more of thefe fquare, inclofed places, 
with two pieces of carved wood at each, and upon them a 
heap of fern. Thefe, we were told, were the graves of three 
Chiefs; and before them, w as an oblong, inclofed fpace, to 
which our condudtor alfo gave the name of T angata-taboo ; 
telling us, fo explicitly, that we could not miftake his 
meaning, that three human facrifices had been buried 
there; that is, one at the funeral of each Chief. It was with 
moft fincere concern, that I could trace, on fuck undoubted 
evidence, the prevalence of thefe bloody rites, throughout 
this immenfe ocean, amongft people disjoined by fuch a 
diftance, and even ignorant of each other’s exiftence, though 
fo ftrongly marked as originally of the fame nation. It 
was no fmall addition to this concern, to refledt, that every 
appearance led us to believe, that the barbarous practice 
was very general here. The iftand feemed to abound with 
fuch places of facrifice as this which we were now vifiting, 
and which appeared to be one of the moft inconfiderable of 
D d 2 them; 
1778. 
January. 
