It appears by the account of Roggewein’s voyage, that these people had no better vessels than when he first visited them.  The want of materials, and not of genius, seems to be the reason why they have made no improvement in this art.  Some pieces of carving were found amongst them, both well designed and executed.  Their plantations are prettily laid out by line, but not inclosed by any fence; indeed they have nothing for this purpose but stones.

I have no doubt that all these plantations are private property, and that there are here, as at Otaheite, chiefs (which they call Areekes) to whom these plantations belong.  But of the power or authority of these chiefs, or of the government of these people, I confess myself quite ignorant.

Nor are we better acquainted with their religion.  The gigantic statues, so often mentioned, are not, in my opinion, looked upon as idols by the present inhabitants, whatever they might have been in the days of the Dutch; at least I saw nothing that could induce me to think so.  On the contrary, I rather suppose that they are burying-places for certain tribes or families.  I, as well as some others, saw a human skeleton lying in one of the platforms, just covered with stones.  Some of these platforms of masonry are thirty or forty feet long, twelve or sixteen broad, and from three to twelve in height; which last in some measure depends on the nature of the ground; for they are generally at the brink of the bank facing the sea, so that this face may be ten or twelve feet or more high, and the other may not be above three or four.  They are built, or rather faced, with hewn stones, of a very large size; and the workmanship is not inferior to the best plain piece of masonry we have in England.  They use no sort of cement, yet the joints are exceedingly close, and the stones morticed and tenanted one into another, in a very artful manner.  The side-walls are not perpendicular, but inclining a little inwards, in the same manner that breast-works, &c. are built in Europe; yet had not all this care, pains, and sagacity, been able to preserve these curious structures from the ravages of all-devouring time.

The statues, or at least many of them, are erected on these platforms, which serve as foundations.  They are, as near as we could judge, about half length, ending in a sort of stump at the bottom, on which they stand.  The workmanship is rude, but not bad; nor are the features of the face ill formed, the nose and chin in particular; but the ears are long beyond proportion; and, as to the bodies, there is hardly any thing like a human figure about them.