Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0364
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[Page 364]
Huahine
2 ft high & one thick. Most of these were carvd with heads of men boys or other devices as the rough fancy & more rough workmanship of these stone hatchet furnishd gentrey suggested & executed The flats were filld with very fine breadfruit trees & an infinite number of Cocoa nuts upon which latter the inhabitants seemd to depend much more than those of Otahite we saw however large spaces occupied by lagoons & salt swamps upon which neither breadfruit nor Cocoa nuts would thrive.
18. This morning went to take a farther view of a building which we had seen yesterday & admird a good deal taking with us Tupias boy Tayeto for himself was too much engagd with his freinds to have time to accompany us the boy told us that it was calld Ewharre no Eatua or the house of the god but could not explain at all the use of it it consisted of a chest whose lid was nicely sewd on & thatched over very neatly with palm nut leaves the whole was fixd upon two poles by little arches of carvd wood very neat these poles seemd to be usd in carrying it from place to place tho when we saw it it was supported upon two posts one end of the chest was open with a round hole within a square one [See image for illustration.] this was yesterday stopd up