was offered, with a
kind of platform at one side. On this are laid the sculls of all the
human sacrifices, which are taken up after they have been several
months under ground. Just above them are placed a great number of the
pieces of wood; and it was also here, where the _maro_, and the other
bundle supposed to contain the god Ooro (and which I call the ark),
were laid during the ceremony, a circumstance which denotes its
agreement with the altar of other nations.

It is much to be regretted, that a practice so horrid in its
own nature, and so destructive of that inviolable right of
self-preservation which every one is born with, should be found still
existing; and (such is the power of superstition to counteract the
first principles of humanity!) existing amongst a people, in many
other respects, emerged from the brutal manners of savage life. What
is still worse, it is probable that these bloody rites of worship
are prevalent throughout all the wide-extended islands of the Pacific
Ocean. The similarity of customs and language, which our late voyages
have enabled us to trace, between the most distant of these islands,
makes it not unlikely that some of the more important articles of
their religious institutions should agree. And indeed we had the most
authentic information, that human sacrifices continue to be offered at
the Friendly Islands. When I described the _Natche_ at Tongataboo, I
mentioned that on the approaching sequel of that festival, we had been
told that ten men were to be sacrificed. This may give us an idea of
the extent of this religious massacre in that island. And though we
should suppose that never more than one person is sacrificed on any
single occasion at Otaheite, it is more than probable that these
occasions happen so frequently, as to make a shocking waste of the
human race, for I counted no less than forty-nine sculls of former
victims, lying before the _morai_, where we saw one more added to
the number. And as none of those sculls had as yet suffered any
considerable change from the weather, it may hence be inferred,
that no great length of time had elapsed, since, at least, this
considerable number of unhappy wretches had been offered upon this
altar of blood.

The custom, though no consideration can make it cease to be
abominable, might be thought less detrimental in some respects, if it
served to impress any awe for the divinity or reverence for religion
upon the minds of the multitud