INTRODUCTION.

XXV

principal natives of divers parties, whohad been eye-witnesses. The narration ofevents being brought down to the periodof Mr. Mariner's fortunate escape *, theremainder of the work furnishes a moreintimate detail of the state of society inregard to rank and professions; their reli-gious and political government; the namesand attributes of their principal gods;their notions of the human soul, and of afuture state of existence ; an investigationof their moral principles, and of their stateof morals ; a description of their most im-portant religious ceremonies; an accountof the healing art, with a detail of someimportant surgical operations practised bythem ; a description of their principal ma-nufactures ; their games and amusements ;music, songs, &c.; and, lastly, a grammarof their language, and a vocabulary to the

* The term escape is here used with propriety, for al-though Mr. M. was well treated, and had every thing thathe could there want, the opportunities of returning homewere very rare, and when he was about to profit from onethat presented itself, his intention was opposed, and he wasunder the necessity of destroying one of the natives to ac-complish his purpose.