struck with the sight of an enormous pile, which, we were told, was the Morai of Oamo and Oberea, and the principal piece of Indian architecture in the island.  It was a pile of stone-work, raised pyramidically, upon an oblong base, or square, two hundred and sixty-seven feet long, and eighty-seven wide.  It was built like the small pyramidal mounts upon which we sometimes fix the pillar of a sun-dial, where each side is a flight of steps; the steps, however, at the sides, were broader than those at the ends, so that it terminated not in a square of the same figure with the base, but in a ridge, like the roof of a house:  There were eleven of these steps, each of which was four feet high, so that the height of the pile was forty-four feet; each step was formed of one course of white coral-stone, which was neatly squared and polished; the rest of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure, seemed to have been wrought.  Some of the coral-stones were very large; we measured one of them, and found it three feet and a half by two feet and a half.  The foundation was of rock stones, which were also squared; and one of them measured four feet seven inches by two feet four.  Such a structure, raised without the assistance of iron-tools to shape the stones, or mortar to join them, struck us with astonishment:  It seemed to be as compact and firm as it could have been made by any workman in Europe, except that the steps, which range along its greatest length, are not perfectly straight, but sink in a kind of hollow in the middle, so that the whole surface, from end to end, is not a right line, but a curve.  The quarry stones, as we saw no quarry in the neighbourhood, must have been brought from a considerable distance; and there is no method of conveyance here but by hand:  The coral must also have been fished from under the water, where, though it may be found in plenty, it lies at a considerable depth, never less than three feet.  Both the rock-stone and the coral could be squared only by tools made of the same substance, which must have been a work of incredible labour; but the polishing was more easily effected by means of the sharp coral sand, which is found every-where upon the seashore in great abundance.  In the middle of the top stood the image of a bird, carved in wood; and near it lay the broken one of a fish, carved in stone.  The whole of this pyramid made part of one side of a spacious area or square, nearly of equal sides, being three hundred and sixty feet by three hundred and fifty-four, which was walled in with stone, and paved with flat stones in its whole extent; though there were growing in it, notwithstanding the pavement, several of the trees which they call Etoa, and plantains.  About a hundred yards to the west of this building, was another paved area or court, in which were several small stages raised on wooden pillars, about seven feet high, which are called by the Indians Ewattus, and seem to be a kind of altars, as upon these are placed provisions of all kinds as offerings to their gods; we have since seen whole hogs placed upon them, and we found here the skulls of above fifty, besides the skulls of a great number of dogs.[94]