1769. was. extremely neat, and upon it was railed a pyramid, about
J— -----» five feet high, which was intirely covered with the fruits of
hjirfday 29, two piantS) peculiar to the country. Near the pyramid was
a fmall image of ftone, of very rude workmanfhip, and the
firfl inftance of carving in ftone that we had feen among thefe
people. They appeared to fet a high value upon it, for it
was covered from the weather by a fhed, that had been
erected on purpofe.
We proceeded in the boat, and palled through the only
harbour, on the fouth fide of Opoureonu, that is fit for flopping.
It is fituaied about five miles to the weftward of the
ifthmus, between two fmall iflands that lie near the fhore,
and about a mile diftant from each other, and affords good
anchorage in eleven and twelve fathom water. We were
now not far from the diflrict called Pap a r e a , which belonged
to our friends Oamo and Oberea, where we propofed to fleep.
We went on fhore about an hour before night, and found
that they were both abfent, having left their habitations to
pay us a vifit at Matavai: this, however, did not alter our
purpofe, we took up our quarters at the houfe of Oberea,
which, though fmall, was very neat, and at this time had
no inhabitant but her father, who received us with looks,
that bid us welcome. Having taken pofleflion, we were
willing to improve the little day-light that was left us, and
therefore walked out to a point, upon which we had feen, at
a diftance, trees that are here called Etoa, which generally
diftinguifh the places where thefe people bury the bones of
their dead: their name for fuch burying-grounds, which are
alfo places of worfhip, is Morai . We were foon ftruck with
the fight of an enormous pile, which, we were told, was
the Morai of Oamo and Oberea, and the principal piece of
Indian architecture in the ifland. It was a pile of ftone
work, raifed pyramidically, upon an oblong bafe, or fquare,
two
two hundred and fixty-feven feet long, and eighty-feven »769-
wide. It was built like the fmall pyramidal mounts upon <— ^ —'
which we fometimes fix the pillar of a fun-dial, where each Th“riaa!' 2®’
fide is a flight of fteps; the fteps, however, at the fides, were
broader than thofe at the ends, fo that it terminated not in a
fquare of the fame figure with the bafe, but in a ridge, like
the roof of a houfe: there were eleven of thefe fteps, each of
which was four feet high, fo that the height of the pile was
forty-four feet; each ftep was formed of one courfe of white
coral ftone, which was neatly fquared and polifhed, the reft
of the mafs, for there was no hollow within, confifted of
round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure,
feemed to have been wrought. Some of the coral ftones
were very large; we meafured one of them, and found it
three feet and an half by two feet and an half. The foundation
was of rock ftones, which were alfo fquared ; and one
of them meafured four feet feven inches by two feet four.
Such a ftruCture, raifed without the aififtance of iron tools to
lhape the ftones, or mortar to join them, ftruck us with
aftonifhment: it feemed to be as compact and firm as it could,
have been made by any workman in Europe, except that
the fteps, which range along its greateft length, are not perfectly
ftrait, but fink in a kind of hollow in the middle, fo
thatthe whole furfaee, from end to end,, is not a right line,,
but a curve. The quarry ftones, as we faw no quarry in the
neighbourhood, muft have been brought from a confiderable
diftance; and there is no method of conveyance here but by
hand: the coral muft alfo have been fifhed from under the
water, where, though it may be found in plenty, it lies at a
confiderable depth, never lefs than three feet. Both the
rock ftone and the coral could be fquared only by tools
made of the fame fubftance, which muft have been a work
©f incredible labour; but the polifiiing was. more eafily
g, effected*