426 cook's voyage to july, 



Hamoa, which is also under the dominion of 

 Tongataboo, lies two days' sail north-west from Va- 

 vaoo. It was described to me as the largest of all 

 their islands, as affording harbours and good water ; 

 and as producing, in abundance, every article of re- 

 freshment found at the places we visited. Poulaho 

 himself frequently resides there. It should seem 

 that the people of this island are in high estimation 

 at Tongataboo ; for we were told that some of the 

 songs and dances with which we were entertained, 

 had been copied from theirs ; and we saw some 

 houses said to be built after their fashion. Mr. An- 

 derson, always inquisitive about such matters, learnt 

 the three following words of the dialect of Hamoa. 



Tamolao *, a chief man. 

 Tamaety, a chief woman. 

 Solle, a common man. 



* 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 pre- 

 vailing 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 hu- 

 man 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 



