figure of a bird carved in wood, and near it lay the broken
figure of a fish carved in stone. About a hundred yards to the west of
this building was another paved court, in which were several small
stages raised on wooden pillars seven feet high. These were altars,
called Ewattas, and upon them were placed provisions of all sorts as
offerings to their gods. In the neighbourhood of the morai were found
large numbers of human bones. These were said to have been the remains
of the inhabitants killed a few months before by the people of Tirrabou,
in the south-east peninsula, who had made a sudden descent on the coast.
The jaw-bones had been carried away as trophies, as the Indians of
North America carry off the scalps of their enemies. The natives
conjectured, probably, that the English would not approve of human
sacrifices, and therefore refrained from offering up any, or did so only
when they knew that their visitors would not interrupt them in their
horrible proceedings.

The inhabitants of Otaheite were remarkably intelligent, and their minds
were capable of a high state of cultivation. The climate was considered
healthy, and the natural productions of the island abundant. The
bread-fruit was, perhaps, the most valuable. They had also cocoanuts,
thirteen sorts of bananas, plantains; a fruit not unlike an apple, sweet
potatoes, yams, cacao; a kind of _arum_, the _yambu_, the sugar-cane; a
fruit growing in a pod, like a large kidney bean; the pandana tree,
which produces fruit like the pine-apple, and numerous edible roots of
nutritious quality. Among other trees must be mentioned the Chinese
paper-mulberry, from which their cloth was, and is still, manufactured,
and two species of fig-trees. There were no serpents and no wild
quadrupeds on the island, except rats. Their tame animals were hogs,
dogs, and poultry, and there were wild ducks, pigeons, paroquets, and a
few other birds. The complexion of the people was olive or light brown;
that of the women of the upper classes being very clear, with
well-formed faces and expressive eyes, the nose only being flatter than
is admired in Europe. In their persons, as already observed, they were
remarkably cleanly; and they certainly showed that they were neither
treacherous nor revengeful. Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and Captain Cook
himself, were constantly in their power, often in their villages,
sleeping in separate huts, without any watch or guard.

Contrary to the