466 cook's voyage to jult, 



also many of their words the same with those used 

 by the natives of Cocos Island, as appears from the 

 vocabulary collected there by Le Maire and Schou- 

 ten. * The mode of pronunciation differs, indeed, 

 considerably, in many instances, from that both of 

 New Zealand and Otaheite ; but still a great num- 

 ber of words are either exactly the same, or so little 

 changed, that their common original may be satisfac- 

 torily traced. The language, as spoken at the 

 Friendly Islands, is sufficiently copious for all the 

 ideas of the people ; and we had many proofs of its 

 being easily adapted to all musical purposes, both in 

 song and in recitative ; besides being harmonious 

 enough in common conversation. Its component 

 parts, as far as our scanty acquaintance with it 

 enabled us to judge, are not numerous ; and in some 

 of its rules, it agrees with other known languages. 

 As, for instance, we could easily discern the several 

 degrees of comparison, as used in the Latin ; but 

 none of the inflections of nouns and verbs. 



We were able to collect several hundreds of the 

 words ; and, amongst these, are terms that express 

 numbers as far as a hundred thousand ; beyond 

 which they never would reckon. It is probable, in- 

 deed, that they are not able to go farther ; for, after 

 having got thus far, we observed that they commonly 



* See this vocabulary, at the end of vol. ii. of Dalrymple's 

 Collection of Voyages. And yet, though Tasman's people used 

 the words of this vocabulary, in speaking to the natives of Tong- 

 ataboo (his Amsterdam), we are told in the accounts of his voyage, 

 that they did not understand one another ; a circumstance worth 

 observing, as it shows how cautious we should be, upon the scanty 

 evidence afforded by such transient visits as Tasman's, and, indeed, 

 as those of most of the subsequent navigators of the Pacific Ocean, 

 to found any argument about the affinity, or want of affinity, of 

 the languages of the different islands. No one now will venture 

 to sa}^, that a Cocos man, and one of Tongataboo, could not under- 

 stand each other. Some of the words of Horn Island, another of 

 Schouten's discoveries, also belong to the dialect of Tongataboo. 

 See Dalrymple, as above. 



