[Footnote 5:  14 lb.]

[Footnote 6:  Since these papers were prepared for the press, I have been informed by Mr Vancouver, who was one of my midshipmen in the Discovery, and was afterward appointed lieutenant of the Martin sloop of war, that he tried the method here recommended, both with English and Spanish pork, during a cruize on the Spanish Main, in the year 1782, and succeeded to the utmost of his expectations.  He also made the experiment at Jamaica with the beef served by the victualling-office to the ships, but not with the same success, which he attributes to the want of the necessary precautions in killing and handling the beasts; to their being hung up and opened before they had sufficient time to bleed, by which means the blood-vessels were exposed to the air, and the blood condensed before it had time to empty itself, and to their being hard driven and bruised.  He adds, that having himself attended to the killing of an ox, which was carefully taken on board the Martin, he salted a part of it, which, at the end of the week, was found to have taken the salt completely, and he has no doubt would have kept for any length of time; but the experiment was not tried.]

I shall now return to our transactions on shore at the observatory, where we had not been long settled before we discovered, in our neighbourhood, the habitation of a society of priests, whose regular attendance at the morai had excited our curiosity.  Their huts stood round a pond of water, and were surrounded by a grove of cocoa-nut trees, which separated them from the beach and the rest of the village, and gave the place an air of religious retirement.  On my acquainting Captain Cook with these circumstances, he resolved to pay them a visit; and, as he expected to be received in the same manner as before, he brought Mr Webber with him to make a drawing of the ceremony.

On his arrival at the beach, he was conducted to a sacred building called Harre-no-Orono, or the house of Orono, and seated before the entrance, at the foot of a wooden idol, of the same kind with those on the morai.  I was here again made to support one of his arms; and, after wrapping him in red cloth, Kaireekeea, accompanied by twelve priests, made an offering of a pig with the usual solemnities.  The pig was then strangled, and a fire being kindled, it was thrown into the embers, and after the hair was singed off, it was again presented, with a repetition of the chanting in the manner described.  The dead pig was then held for a short time under the captain’s nose, after which it was laid, with a cocoa-nut, at his feet, and the performers sat down.  The ava was then brewed, and handed round; a fat hog, ready dressed, was brought in, and we were fed as before.