James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 114

                                                  Georges Island

Having given the best account I can of the manners & Customs of these people it will be expected that I should give some account of their religion which is a thing I have learnt so little of that I hardly dare touch upon it & should have passed it over in silence was it not my duty as well as inclination to insert in this journal every & the least knowledge I may obtain of people who for many Centuries have been shut up from almost every other part of the world.
Religion    They believe that their is one Supream God whom they call Tawny - from him sprung a number of inferior deities Eatuas as they call them  these they think preside over them & intermeddle in their affairs. to these they offer Oblations such as Hogs, Dogs, Fish Fruit etc & invoce them on some particular occasions as in time of real or Apparent Danger, the setting out of a long Voyage, sickness's etc.  but the Ceremony made use of on these occasions I know not, the Mories which we at first thought was burying places are wholy built for places of worship & for the performing of religious ceremonies in,  the Viands are laid upon altars erected 8, 10 or 12 feet high by stout posts & the Table of the Altar on which the Viands lay is generally made of Palm leaves, they are not always in the Mories but very often at some Distance from them, their Mories as well as the Tombs of the Dead they seem to hold sacred & the women never enter former whatever they may do the latter. The Viands laid near the Tombs of the Dead are from what I can learn, not for the deceased but as an Offering to the Eatua made upon that occasion who if not would distroy the body & not except of the Soul for they believe of a future state of rewards & punishments, but what their Ideas are of it I know not.  We have seen in some few places small Houses set apart on purpose for th reception of the Oblations offer'd to the Eatua which consists in small stripts of Cloth Viands etc.  I  am of Opinion they offer to the Eatua a Strip or small peice of every peice of Cloth they make before they use it themselves & it is not unlikely but what they observe the same thing with respect to their Victuals, but as there are but few of these houses this cannot be a common Custom, it may only be observ'd by the Priests & such families as are more religious than others.
now I have mentiond priests they are men that Exercise that function of which Numbers Tupia is one they seem to be in no great repute neither can they live wholy by their profession & this leads me to think that these people are no bigots to their religion the priests on some occasions do