ards; so that another wall,
parallel to the first, about twelve yards from it, and facing the
country, was not above two or three feet high. The whole area between
the two walls was filled up with soil and covered over with grass.
About fifty yards farther to the south, there was another elevated
area, of which the surface was paved with square stones exactly
similar to those which formed the walls. In the midst of this area,
there was a pillar consisting of a single stone, which represented a
human figure to the waist, about twenty feet high, and upwards of five
feet wide. The workmanship of this figure was rude, and spoke the arts
in their infancy. The eyes, nose, and mouth, were scarcely marked on a
lumpish ill-shaped head; and the ears, which were excessively long,
quite in the fashion of the country, were better executed than any
other part, though a European artist would have been ashamed of them.
The neck was clumsy and short, and the shoulders and arms very
slightly represented. On the top of the head a huge round cylinder of
stone was placed upright, being above five feet in diameter and in
height. This cap, which resembled the head-dress of some Egyptian
divinity, consisted of a different stone from the rest of the pillar,
being of a more reddish colour; and had a hole on each side, as if it
had been made round by turning. The cap, together with the head, made
one half of the whole pillar which appeared above ground. We did not
observe that the natives paid any worship to these pillars, yet they
seemed to hold them in some kind of veneration, as they sometimes
expressed a dislike when we walked over the paved area or pedestals,
or examined the stones of which it consisted. A few of the natives
accompanied us farther on into the country, where we had seen some
bushes at a distance, which we hoped would afford us something new.
Our road was intolerably rugged, over heaps of volcanic stones, which
rolled away under our feet, and against which we continually hurt
ourselves. The natives who were accustomed to this desolate ground,
skipped nimbly from stone to stone without the least difficulty. In
our way we saw several black rats running about, which it seems are
common to every island in the South Sea. Being arrived at the
shrubbery which we had in view, we found it was nothing but