24 cook's first voyage august, 



tameness and timidity, such as those who had only 

 been occasionally warriors must be supposed to have 

 shaken off, whatever might have been their natural 

 disposition. I have faithfully related facts, the 

 reader must judge of the people for himself. 



From the account that has been given of our com- 

 merce with them, it cannot be supposed that we 

 should know much of their language ; yet as this is 

 an object of great curiosity, especially to the learned, 

 and of great importance in their researches into the 

 origin of the various nations that have been discover- 

 ed, we took some pains to bring away such a speci- 

 men of it as might, in a certain degree, answer the 

 purpose, and I shall now give an account how it was 

 procured. If we wanted to know the name of a 

 stone, we took a stone up into our hands, and as well 

 as we could, intimated by signs, that we wished they 

 should name it : the word that they pronounced 

 upon the occasion, we immediately wrote down. 

 This method, though it was the best we could con- 

 trive, might certainly lead us into many mistakes ; 

 for if an Indian was to take up a stone, and ask us 

 the name of it, we might answer a pebble or a flint ; 

 so when we took up a stone, and asked an Indian 

 the name of it, he might pronounce a word that dis- 

 tinguished the species and not the genus, or that, 

 instead of signifying stone simply, might signify a 

 rough stone, or a smooth stone ; however, as much 

 as possible to avoid mistakes of this kind, several of 

 us contrived, at different times, to get from them as 

 many words as we could, and having noted them 

 down, compared our lists : those which were the 

 same in all, and which, according to every one's 

 account, signified the same thing, we ventured to 

 record, with a very few others, which, from the sim- 

 plicity of the subject, and the ease of expressing our 

 question with plainness and precision by a sign, have 

 acquired equal authority. 



