127. Cap François, for reasons already assigned.

128. If there could be the least doubt remaining of the identity of the Baie de l’Oiseau, and Christmas Harbour, the circumstance of the perforated rock, which divides it from another bay to the south, would amount to a strict demonstration. For Monsieur de Pagés had observed this discriminating mark before Captain Cook. His words are as follow: “L’on vit que la côte de l’est, voisine du Cap François, avoit deux baies; elles étoient separées par une pointe très-reconnoissable par sa forme, qui representoit une porte cochère, au travers de laquelle l’on voyoit le jour.” Voyages du M. de Pagés, vol. ii. p. 67. Every one knows how exactly the form of a porte cochère, or arched gateway, corresponds with that of the arch of a bridge. It is very satisfactory to find the two navigators, neither of whom knew any thing of the other’s description, adopting the same idea; which both proves that they had the same uncommon object before their eyes, and that they made an accurate report.

129. In the last note, we saw how remarkably Monsieur de Pagés and Captain Cook agree about the appearance of the south point of the harbour; I shall here subjoin another quotation from the former, containing his account of the harbour itself, in which the reader may trace the same distinguishing features observed by Captain Cook in the foregoing paragraph.

“Le 6, l’on mit à terre dans la première baie à l’est du Cap François, et l’on prit possession de ces contrées. Ce mouillage consiste en une petite rade, qui a environs quatres encablures, ou quatre cents toises de profondeur, sur un tiers en sus de largeur. En dedans de cette rade est un petit port, dont l’entrée, de quatres encablures de largeur, presente au sud-est. La sonde de la petite rade est depuis quarante-cinq jusqu’à trente brasses; et celle du port depuis seize jusqu’à huit. Le fond des deux est de sable noir et vaseux. La côte des deux bords est haute, et par une pente très-rude; elle est couverte de verdure, et il y a une quantité prodigieuse d’outardes. Le fond du port est occupé par un monticule qui laisse entre lui, et la mer une plage de sable. Une petite rivière, de très-bonne eau, coule à la mer dans cet endroit; et elle est fournie par un lac qui est un peu au loin, au-dessus du monticule. Il y avoit sur la plage beaucoup de pinguoins et de lions marins. Ces deux espèces d’animaux ne fuyoient pas, et l’on augura que le pays n’étoit point habité; la terre rapportoit de l’herbe large, noire, et bien nourrie, qui n’avoit cependant que cinque pouces ou plus de hauteur. L’on ne vit aucun arbre, ni signe d’habitation.” Voyage du Monsieur du Pagés, tom. ii. p. 69, 70.

130. Cap François.

131. Cap François.

132. Though Kerguelen’s ships, in 1773, did not venture to explore this part of the coast, Monsieur de Pagés’ account of it answers well to Captain Cook’s. “Du 17 au 23, l’on ne prit d’autre connoissance que celle de la figure de la côte, qui, courant d’abord au S. E., et revenant ensuite au N. E., formoit un grand golfe. Il étoit occupé par des brisans et des rochers; il avoit aussi une isle basse, et assez étendue, et l’on usa d’une bien soigneuse precaution, pour ne pas s’affaler dans ce golfe.” Voyage du M. de Pagés, tom. ii. p. 67.

133. Cap François.

134. Cap François.

135. This part of the coast seems to be what the French saw on the 5th of January, 1774. Monsieur de Pagés speaks of it thus: “Nous reconnumes une nouvelle côte etendue de toute vue dans l’est, et dans le ouest. Les terres de cette côte étoient moins elevées que celles que nous avions vues jusques ici; elles étoient aussi d’un aspect moins rude.” De Pagés, tom. ii. p. 68.

136. See Hawkesworth’s Collection of Voyages, Vol. ii. p. 42.

137. If the French observations, as marked upon Captain Cook’s chart, and still more authentically upon that published by their own discoverers, may be depended upon, this land doth not reach so far to the west as the meridian of 68°; Cape Louis, which is represented as its most westerly point, being laid down by them to the east of that meridian.

138. The idea of Cape Louis being this projecting point of a southern continent, must have soon vanished, as Cape François, within a year after, was found, by the same discoverer, to lie above one third of a degree farther north upon the same land. But if Kerguelen entertained any such imagination at first, we are sure that, at present, he thinks very differently. This appears from the following explicit declaration of his sentiments, which deserves to be transcribed from his late publication, as it does equal honour to his candour, and to Captain Cook’s abilities. “La terre que j’ai découverte est certainement une isle; puisque le célèbre Capitaine Cook a passé au sud, lors de son premier voyage, sans rien rencontrer. Je juge même, que cette isle n’est pas bien grande. Il y a aussi apparence, d’après le Voyage de Monsieur Cook, que toute cette étendue de mers meridionales, est semée d’isles ou de rochers; mais qu’il n’y a ni continent ni grande terre.” Kerguelen, p. 92.

139. Kerguelen, as we see in the last note, concurs with Captain Cook as to this. However, he tells us, that he has reason to believe that it is about two hundred leagues in circuit; and that he was acquainted with about fourscore leagues of its coast. “J’en connois environs quatre-vingt lieues des côtes; et j’ai lieu de croire, qu’elle a environ deux cents lieues de circuit.” Kerguelen, ibid.

140. Some of Monsieur de Kerguelen’s own countrymen seem more desirous than we are, to rob him of this honour. It is very remarkable that Monsieur de Pagés never once mentions the name of his commander. And, though he takes occasion to enumerate the several French explorers of the southern hemisphere, from Gonneville down to Crozet, he affects to preserve an entire silence about Kerguelen, whose first voyage, in which the discovery of this considerable tract of land was made, is kept as much out of sight, as if it never had taken place. Nay, not satisfied with refusing to acknowledge the right of another, he almost assumes it to himself. For, upon a Map of the World annexed to his book, at the spot where the new land is delineated, we read this inscription: Isles nouvelles Australes vuées par Monsieur de Pagés, en 1774. He could scarcely have expressed himself in stronger terms, if he had meant to convey an idea that he was the conductor of the discovery. And yet we know, that he was only a lieutenant [enseigne de vaisseau] on board one of the three ships commanded by Kerguelen; and that the discovery had been already made in a former voyage, undertaken while he was actually engaged in his singular journey round the world.

After all, it cannot but be remarked that Kerguelen was peculiarly unfortunate, in having done so little to complete what he had begun. He discovered a new land indeed; but, in two expeditions to it, he could not once bring his ships to an anchor upon any part of its coasts. Captain Cook, as we have seen in this, and in the foregoing chapter, had either fewer difficulties to struggle with, or was more successful in surmounting them.

141. Pennant’s Patagonian penguin. See his Genera of Birds. Tab. 14. p. 66.

142. Voyage autour du Monde, p. 69.

143. Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée p. 181, 182. Tab. 113. 115.

144. The sheath-bill. See Pennant’s Genera of Birds, p. 43.

145. The most striking difference seems to be with regard to the texture of the hair. The natives whom Captain Cook met with at Endeavour River in 1769, are said, by him, to have naturally long and black hair, though it be universally cropped short. In general it is straight, but sometimes it has a slight curl. We saw none that was not matted and filthy. Their beards were of the same colour with the hair, and bushy and thick. See Vol. II. p. 211. of this Edition of Cook’s Voyages.

It may be necessary to mention here, on the authority of Captain King, that Captain Cook was very unwilling to allow that the hair of the natives now met with in Adventure Bay was woolly, fancying that his people, who first observed this, had been deceived, from its being clotted with grease and red ochre. But Captain King prevailed upon him afterward to examine carefully the hair of the boys, which was generally, as well as that of the women, free from this dirt; and then he owned himself satisfied that it was naturally woolly. Perhaps we may suppose it possible, that he himself had been deceived when he was in Endeavour River, from this very circumstance; as he expressly says, that they saw none that was not matted and filthy.

146. And yet Dampier’s New Hollanders, on the western coast, bear a striking resemblance to Captain Cook’s at Van Diemen’s Land, in many remarkable instances:

1st, As to their becoming familiar with the strangers.

2dly, As to their persons; being straight-bodied, and thin; their skin black; and black, short, curled hair, like the negroes of Guinea; with wide mouths.

3dly, As to their wretched condition; having no houses, no garment, no canoes, no instrument to catch large fish; feeding on broiled muscles, cockles, and periwinckles; having no fruits of the earth; their weapons a straight pole, sharpened and hardened at the end, &c. &c.

The chief peculiarities of Dampier’s miserable wretches are, 1st, Their eye-lids being always half closed, to keep the flies out, which were excessively troublesome there: and, 2dly, Their wanting the two fore-teeth of the upper jaw, and their having no beards. See Dampier s Voyages, vol. i. p. 464, &c. There seems to be no reason for supposing that Dampier was mistaken in the above account of what he saw.

147. Captain Cook’s account of the natives of Van Diemen’s Land, in this chapter, no doubt proves that they differ, in many respects, as he says, from the inhabitants of the more northerly parts of the east coast of New Holland, whom he met with in his first voyage. It seems very remarkable, however, that the only woman any of his people came close to in Botany Bay, should have her hair cropped short; while the man who was with her, is said to have had the hair of his head bushy, and his beard long and rough. See Vol. II. p. 87. of this Edition. Could the natives of Van Diemen’s Land be more accurately described, than by saying that the hair of the men’s heads is bushy, and their beards long and rough, and that the women’s hair is cropped short? So far north, therefore, as Botany Bay, the natives of the east coast of New Holland seem to resemble those of Van Diemen’s Land in this circumstance.

148. Vol. III. chap. vii.

149. Vol. II. p. 167. of this Edition of Cook’s Voyages.

150. Ibid. p. 159.

151. Tom. ii. p. 211. 12mo. Planche xvii.

152. Iter Palæstinum.

153. Tasman, when in the bay of Frederick Henry, adjoining to Adventure Bay, found two trees, one of which was two fathoms, and the other two fathoms and a half in girth, and sixty or sixty-five feet high, from the root to the branches. See his Voyage, in Harris’s Collection, Campbell’s Edition, vol. i. p. 326.

154. The ingenious Author of Récherches sur les Américains, illustrates the grounds of this assertion in the following satisfactory manner: “C’est quelque chose de surprenant, que la foule des idiomes, tous variés entr’eux, que parlent les naturels de l’Amérique Septentrionale. Qu’on réduise ces idiomes à des racines, qu’on les simplifie, qu’on en sépare les dialectes et les jargons dérivés, il en resulte toujours cinq ou six langues-mères, respectivement incomprehensibles. On a observé la même singularité dans la Sibérie et la Tartarie, où le nombre des idiomes, et des dialectes, est également multiplié; et rien n’est plus commun, que d’y voir deux hordes voisines qui ne se comprennent point. On rétrouve cette même multiplicité de jargons dans toutes les Provinces de l’Amérique Méridionale.” [He might also have included Africa.] “Il y a beaucoup d’apparence que la vie sauvage, en dispersant les hommes par petites troupes isolées dans des bois épais, occasione nécessairement cette grande diversité des langues dont le nombre diminue à mesure que la société, en rassemblant les barbares vagabonds, en forme un corps de nation. Alors l’idiome le plus riche, ou le moins pauvre en mots, devient dominant, et absorbe les autres.” Tom. i. p. 159, 160.

155. Dampier seems to be of this opinion. Vol. iii, p. 104, 125.

156. We find Mr. Anderson’s notions on this subject conformable to those of Mr. Marsden, who has remarked, “that one general language prevailed (however mutilated and changed in the course of time) throughout all this portion of the world, from Madagascar to the most distant discoveries eastward; of which the Malay is a dialect, much corrupted or refined by a mixture of other tongues. This very extensive similarity of language indicates a common origin of the inhabitants; but the circumstances and progress of their separation are wrapped in the darkest veil of obscurity.” History of Sumatra, p. 35.

See also his very curious paper, read before the Society of Antiquaries, and published in their Archæologia, vol. vi. p. 155; where his sentiments on this subject are explained more at large, and illustrated by two tables of corresponding words.

157. See the chart of Queen Charlotte’s Sound, in Hawkesworth’s Collection, vol. ii. p. 385.

158. In 1772.

159. See Vol. I. p. 383.

160. See Vol. III. p. 132.

161. See Vol. IV. p. 145.

162. See Vol. IV. p. 144.

163. See his Narrative, Vol. IV. p. 232.

164. In a separate memorandum-book, Mr. Anderson mentions the monstrous animal of the lizard kind, described by the two boys after they left the island.

165. See Hawkesworth’s Collection, vol. iii. p. 474, 475, and Captain Cook’s Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 364.

166. A very ingenious and satisfactory account of the cause of the surf, is to be met with in Marsden’s History of Sumatra, p. 29. 32.

167. The inhabitants of the Palaos, New Philippine, or rather Caroline Islands, at the distance of almost fifteen hundred leagues from Mangeea, have the same mode of salutation. “Leur civilité, et la marque de leur respect, consiste à prendre la main ou le pied de celui à qui ils veulent faire honneur, et s’en frotter doucement tout le visage.” Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 208. Edit. 1781.

168. Something like this ceremony was performed by the inhabitants of the Marquesas, when Captain Cook visited them in 1774. See his 2d Voyage, Vol. III. It is curious to observe, at what immense distances this mode of receiving strangers prevails.—Padillo, who sailed from Manilla in 1710, on a voyage to discover the Palaos Islands, was thus received there. The writer of the relation of his voyage says, “Aussitôt qu’ils approchèrent de notre bord, ils se mirent à chanter. Ils régloient la cadence, en frappant des mains sur leurs cuisses.”

169. The dances of the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands have a great resemblance to those here described. See Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 315. See also, in the same volume, p. 207, what is said of the singing and dancing of the inhabitants of the Palaos Islands, which belong to the same group.

170. Such accidents as this here related, probably happen frequently in the Pacific Ocean. In 1696, two canoes, having on board thirty persons of both sexes, were driven by contrary winds and tempestuous weather, on the isle of Samal, one of the Philippines, after being tost about at sea seventy days, and having performed a voyage from an island called by them Amorsot, 300 leagues to the east of Samal. Five of the number who had embarked, died of the hardships suffered during this extraordinary passage. See a particular account of them, and of the islands they belonged to, in Lettres Edifiantes and Curieuses, tom. xv. from p. 196 to p. 215. In the same volume, from p. 282 to p. 320, we have the relation of a similar adventure, in 1721, when two canoes, one containing twenty-four, and the other six persons, men, women, and children, were driven from an island they called Farroilep, northward to the isle of Guam, or Guahan, one of the Ladrones or Mariannes. But these had not sailed so far as their countrymen, who reached Samal as above, and they had been at sea only twenty days. There seems to be no reason to doubt the general authenticity of these two relations. The information contained in the letters of the Jesuits, about these islands, now known under the name of the Carolines, and discovered to the Spaniards by the arrival of the canoes at Samal and Guam, has been adopted by all our later writers. See President de Brosse’s Voyages aux Terres Australes, tom. ii. from p. 443. to p. 490. See also the Modern Universal History.

171. See Vol. III. book ii. chap. 1., where this island is said to be about six leagues in circuit.

172. The reader will observe, that this name bears little affinity to any one of the names of the three chiefs of Wateeoo, as preserved by Mr. Anderson.

173. See Vol. IV. p. 2., 5.

174. Mr. Anderson, in his journal, mentions the following particulars, relative to Palmerston’s Island, which strongly confirm Captain Cook’s opinion about its formation. “On the last of the two islots, where we landed, the trees, being in great numbers, had already formed, by their rotten parts, little risings or eminences, which, in time, from the same cause, may become small hills. Whereas, on the first islot, the trees being less numerous, no such thing had as yet happened. Nevertheless, on that little spot, the manner of formation was more plainly pointed out. For, adjoining to it, was a small isle, which had, doubtless, been very lately formed; as it was not, as yet, covered with any trees, but had a great many shrubs, some of which were growing among pieces of coral, that the sea had thrown up. There was still a more sure proof of this method of formation a little farther on, where two patches of sand, about fifty yards long, and a foot or eighteen inches high, lay upon the reef, but not, as yet, furnished with a single bush or tree.”

175. For an account of the discovery of Savage Island; a description of it; and the behaviour of its inhabitants, on Captain Cook’s landing, see Vol. IV. p. 3. to p. 6.

176. That is, Little Annamooka.

177. See Captain Cook’s last Voyage, Vol. IV. p. 7.

178. See Tasman’s account of this island, in Mr. Dalrymple’s valuable Collection of Voyages to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 79, 80. The few particulars mentioned by Tasman, agree remarkably with Captain Cook’s more extended relation.

179. As a proof of the great difficulty of knowing accurately the exact names of the South Sea Islands, as procured from the natives, I observe that what Captain Cook calls Aghao, Mr. Anderson calls Kao; and Tasman’s drawing, as I find it in Mr. Dalrymple’s Collection of Voyages, gives the name of Kaybay to the same island. Tasman’s and Captain Cook’s Amattafoa, is, with Mr. Anderson, Tofoa. Captain Cook’s Komango, is Tasman’s Amango. There is scarcely an instance in which such variations are not observable. Mr. Anderson’s great attention to matters of this sort being, as we learn from Captain King, well known to every body on board, and admitted always by Captain Cook himself, his mode of spelling has been adopted on the engraved chart of the Friendly Islands, which has made it necessary to adopt it also, in printing the journal.

180. Mr. Anderson’s account of the night dances being much fuller than Captain Cook’s, the reader will not be displeased that it has been adopted.

181. In a former note, at p. 258. it was observed, that the songs and dances of the Caroline Islanders, in the north Pacific, bear a great resemblance to those of the inhabitants of Wateeoo. The remark may be now extended to those of the Friendly Islanders, described at large in this chapter. That the reader may judge for himself, I have selected the following particulars from Father Cantova’s account. “Pendant la nuit, au clair de la lune, ils s’assemblent, de temps en temps, pour chanter et danser devant la maison de leur Tamole. Leurs danses se font au son de la voix, car ils n’ont point d’instrument de musique. La beauté de la danse, consiste dans l’exacte uniformité des mouvemens du corps. Les hommes, séparés des femmes, se postent vis-à-vis les uns des autres; après quoi, ils remuent la tête, les bras, les mains, les pieds, en cadence.—Leur tête est couverte de plumes, ou de fleurs; et l’on voit, attachées à leurs oreilles, des feuilles de palmier tissues avec assez d’art.—Les femmes, de leur côté, se regardant les unes les autres, commencent un chant pathétique et langoureux, accompagnant le son de leur voix du mouvement cadencé de la tête et des bras.” Lettres Edifiantes & Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 314, 315.

182. See Vol. III. book ii. ch. 2. The name of this extraordinary personage is there said to be Kohagee-too Fallangou; which cannot, by the most skilful etymologist, be tortured into the least most distant resemblance of Latooliboula. It is remarkable, that Captain Cook should not take any notice of his having called the same person by two names so very different. Perhaps we may account for this by supposing one to be the name of the person, and the other the description of his title or rank. This supposition seems well founded, when we consider, that Latoo, in the language of these people, is sometimes used to signify a great chief; and Dr. Foster, in his Observations, p. 378, 379, and elsewhere, speaks of the sovereign of Tongataboo, under the title of their Latoo. This very person is called by Dr. Foster, p. 370, Latoo-Nipooroo; which furnishes a very striking instance of the variations of our people in writing down the same word as pronounced by the natives. However, we can easily trace the affinity between Nipooroo and Liboula, as the changes of the consonants are such as are perpetually made, upon hearing a word pronounced, to which our ears have not been accustomed. Mr. Anderson here agrees with Captain Cook in writing Latooliboula.

183. Tangata, in their language is man; Arekee, king.

184. Marks of profound respect, very similar to those paid by natives of the Friendly Islands to their sovereign, are also paid to the principal chiefs, or Tamoles of the Caroline Islands, as appears from father Cantova’s account here transcribed. “Lorsqu’un Tamole donne audience, il paroît assis sur une table élevée: les peuples s’inclinent devant lui jusqu’à terre; et du plus loin qu’ils arrivent, ils marchent, le corps tout courbé, et la tête presqu’entre les génoux, jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient auprès de sa personne; alors ils s’asséyent à plate terre; et, les yeux baissés, ils reçoivent ses ordres avec le plus profond respect. Quand le Tamole les congedie, ils se retirent, en se courbant de la même manière que quand ils sont venus, et ne se relèvent que lorsqu’ils sont hors de sa présence. Ses paroles sont autant d’oracles qu’on revère; on rend à ses ordres une obeissance aveugle; enfin, on baise les mains et les pieds, quand on lui demande quelque grace.”

185. The same sort of evening concert is performed round the house of the chief, or Tamole, at the Caroline Islands. “Le Tamole ne s’endort qu’au bruit d’un concert de musique que forme une troupe de jeunes gens, qui s’assemblent le soir, autour de sa maison, et qui chantent, à leur manière, certaines poësies.” Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 314.

186. See Vol. I. p. 209.

187. Mr. Anderson’s description of the entertainments of this day being much fuller than Captain Cook’s, it has been adopted, as on a former occasion.

188. The burying-places of the chiefs at the Caroline Islands, are also inclosed in this manner. See Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 309.

189. The following account of kava, to the end of this paragraph, is inserted from Mr. Anderson’s journal.

190. From the 4th to the 7th of October.

191. See his Characteres Generum Plantarum. Lond. 1776.

192. Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée, Tab. cii.

193. This is the fiatooka mentioned above by Mr. Anderson, p. 379.

194. See p. 371.

195. In the account of Captain Cook’s former Voyage, he calls the only chief he then met with at this place, Tioony. See Vol. III. p. 200.

196. Those islands; which the natives represented as large ones, are distinguished in Italics.

197. Tasman saw eighteen or twenty of these small islands, every one of which was surrounded with sands, shoals, and rocks. They are also called, in some charts, Heemskirk’s Banks. See Dalrymple’s Collection of Voyages to the South Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 83.; and Campbell’s edition of Harris’s, vol. i. p. 325.

198. See Captain Wallis’s Voyage, in Hawkesworth’s Collection, vol. i. p. 492-494. Captain Wallis there calls both these islands high ones. But the superior height of one of them may be inferred, from his saying, that it appears like a sugar-loaf. This strongly marks its resemblance to Kao. From comparing Poulaho’s intelligence to Captain Cook, with Captain Wallis’s account, it seems to be past all doubt, that Boscawen’s Island is our Kootahee, and Keppel’s Island our Neeootabootaboo. The last is one of the large islands marked in the foregoing list. The reader, who has been already apprized of the variations of our people in writing down what the natives pronounced, will hardly doubt that Kottejeea and Kootahee are the same.

199. Neither Dalrymple nor Campbell, in their accounts of Tasman’s voyage, take any particular notice of his having seen such an island. The chart here referred to by Captain Cook is probably Mr. Dalrymple’s, in his Collection of Voyages, where Tasman’s track is marked accurately; and several very small spots of land are laid down in the situation here mentioned.

200. In two or three preceding notes, extracts have been made from the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, as marking a strong resemblance between some of the customs of the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands, and those which Captain Cook describes as prevailing at an immense distance in the islands which he visited in the South Pacific Ocean. Possibly, however, the presumption, arising from this resemblance, that all these islands were peopled by the same nation, or tribe, may be resisted under the plausible pretence, that customs very similar prevail amongst very distant people, without inferring any other common source, besides the general principles of human nature, the same in all ages, and every part of the globe. The reader, perhaps, will not think this pretence applicable to the matter before us, if he attends to the following very obvious distinction: Those customs which have their foundation in wants that are common to the whole human species, and which are confined to the contrivance of means to relieve those wants, may well be supposed to bear a strong resemblance, without warranting the conclusion, that they who use them have copied each other, or have derived them from one common source; human sagacity being the same every where, and the means adapted to the relief of any particular natural want, especially in countries similarly uncultivated, being but few. Thus the most distant tribes, as widely separated as Terra del Fuego is from the islands east of Kamtschatka, may, both of them, produce their fire by rubbing two sticks upon each other, without giving us the least foundation for supposing, that either of them imitated the other, or derived the invention from a source of instruction common to both. But this seems not to be the case with regard to those customs to which no general principle of human nature has given birth, and which have their establishment solely from the endless varieties of local whim, and national fashion. Of this latter kind, those customs obviously are, that belong both to the North, and to the South Pacific Islands, from which, we would infer, that they were originally one nation; and the men of Mangeea, and the men of the New Philippines, who pay their respects to a person whom they mean to honour, by rubbing his hand over their faces, bid fair to have learned their mode of salutation in the same school. But if this observation should not have removed the doubts of the sceptical refiner, probably he will hardly venture to persist in denying the identity of race, contended for in the present instance, when he shall observe, that, to the proof drawn from affinity of customs, we have it in our power to add that most unexceptionable one, drawn from affinity of language. Tamoloa, we now know, is the word used at Hamoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to signify a chief; and whoever looks into the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, will see that this is the very name by which the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands distinguish their principal men. We have in two preceding notes, inserted passages from Father Cantova’s account of them, where their Tamoles are spoken of; and he repeats the word at least a dozen times, in the course of a few pages. But I cannot avoid transcribing from him, the following very decisive testimony, which renders any other quotation superfluous. “L’autorité du gouvernement se partage entre plusieurs familles nobles, dont les chefs s’appellent Tamoles. Il y a outre cela, dans chaque province, un principal Tamole, auquel tous les autres sont soumis.”

201. Vol. III. p. 218, 219.

202. Ibid. p. 220, &c.

203. See Vol. IV. p. 19., where Captain Cook gives a particular account of meeting with a person afflicted with this disease, at Annamooka, on his landing there in 1773.

204. So at the Caroline Islands. “Ils sont accoutumés à se baigner trois fois le jour, le matin, à midi, et sur le soir.”

205. How remarkably does Captain Cook’s account of the employments of the women and men here, agree with Father Cantova’s, of the Caroline Islanders!—“La principale occupation des hommes, est de construire des barques, de pêcher, et de cultiver la terre. L’affaire des femmes est de faire la cuisine, et de mettre en œuvre un espèce de plante sauvage, et un arbre, pour en faire de la toile.”

206. Vol. III. p. 222, 223. The reader, by comparing that account, with what Cantova says of the sea-boats of the Caroline Islands, will find, in this instance, also, the greatest similarity. See Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, p. 286.

207. Cantova says of his islanders, “Ils prennent leur repos dès que le soleil est couché, et ils se levent avec l’aurore.” Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 314.

208. If, to the copious descriptions that occur in the preceding pages, of the particular entertainments exhibited in Hapaee and Tongataboo, we add the general view of the usual amusements of the inhabitants of these islands, contained in this paragraph, and compare it with the quotations from the Jesuit’s Letters, in a former note (p. 255.), we shall be still more forcibly struck with the reasonableness of tracing such singularly resembling customs to one common source. The argument, in confirmation of this, drawn from identity of language, has been already illustrated, by observing the remarkable coincidence of the name by which the chiefs at the Caroline Islands, and those at Hamao, one of the Friendly ones, are distinguished. But the argument does not rest on a single instance, though that happens to be a very striking one. Another of the very few specimens of the dialect of the North Pacific islanders, preserved by father Cantova, furnishes an additional proof. Immediately after the passage above referred to, he proceeds thus: “Ce divertissement s’appelle, en leur langue, tanger ifaifil; qui veut dire, la plainte des femmes.” Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 315. Now, it is very remarkable, that we learn from Mr. Anderson’s collection of words, which will appear in this chapter, that la plainte des femmes, or, in English, the mournful song of the women, which the inhabitants of the Caroline Islands express in their language tanger ifaifil, would, by those of Tongataboo, be expressed tangee vefaine.

If any one should still doubt, in spite of this evidence, it may be recommended to his consideration, that long separation and other causes have introduced greater variations in the mode of pronouncing these two words, at places confessedly inhabited by the same race, than subsist in the specimen just given. It appears, from Mr. Anderson’s vocabulary, printed in Captain Cook’s second voyage, that what is pronounced tangee at the Friendly Islands, is taee at Otaheite: and the vefaine of the former, is the waheine of the latter.