158 



A VOYAGE TO 



•777- general charaflcr, in other rcfpedts, has evident traces of 



December. '-' , ' _ 



< ' -cbc prevalence of humane and tender feelings *. When aii 



Erreoe 



* That the Caroline Iflands arc inhabited by the fame tribe or nation, whom Cap- 

 tain Cook fouix!, at fuch imntenfe dirtances, fpread throughout the South Pacific 

 Ocean, has been fatisfaiSlorily eftabliflied in fome preceding notes. The fituation of 

 the Ladrones, or Marianne Iflands, flill farther North than the Carolines, but at no 

 great diftance from them, is favourable, at firfl fight, to the conjecture, that the 

 •{'ame race alfo peopled that clufler ; and, on looking into Father le Gobien's Hiftory of 

 them, this conjeJHire appears tobeaflually confirmed by dired evidence. One of the 

 greatcft fingularities of the Otaheite manners, is the exiftence of the fociety of young 

 jnen, called Erroes, of whom fome account is given in the preceding paragraph. 

 •Now we learn from Father le Gobicn, that fuch a fociety exifts alfo amongft the in- 

 habitants of the Ladrones. His words are; Les Urritoes font parnii cux les jeuns gens 

 qui v'lvent avec des ma'itrejfes., fans voulo'tr s" engager dans les liens du manage. That there 

 (hould be young men in the Ladrones, as well as in Otaheite, ivho live with mijiveffesy 

 ivithout being inclined to enter into the married Jlatc, would not, indeed, furnifli the 

 Ihadow of any peculiar refemblance between them. But that the young men in 

 the Ladrones, and in Otaheite, whofe manners arc thus licentious, fhould be con- 

 fidered as a diflinct confraternity, called by a particular name ; and that this name 

 fhould be the fame in both places : this finguhir coincidence of cuftom, confirmed by 

 that of language, fcems to furnifli an irrefragable proof of the inhabitants of both places 

 being the fame nation. We know, that it is the general property of the Otaheite 

 dialect, to foften the pronunciation of its words. And, it is obfervable, that, by the 

 omiflion of one fingic letter (the confonant t), our Arreoys (as fpelled in Hawkef- 

 worth's Colledtion), or £r;i'5fj (according to Mr. Anderfon's orthography), and the 

 Urritoes of the Ladrones, are brought to fuch a fimilitude of found (the only rule of 

 comparing two unwritten languages), that we may pronounce them to be the fame 

 word, without cxpofing ourfclves ro the fnecrs of fupercilious criticifin. 



One or two more fuch proofs, drawn from fimilarity of language, in very fignifi- 

 cant words, may be afTigned. Le Gobien tells us, that the people of the Ladrones 

 worftiip their dead, whom they call Anitis. Here, again, by dropping the confonant 

 w, we have a word that bears a ftrong refemblance to that which fo often occurs 

 in Captain Cook's Voyages, v.hcn fpeaking of the Divinities of his iflands, whom 

 he calls Eatcons. And it may be matter of curi'fity to remark, that what is called 

 an Atiiti, at the Ladrones, is, as we learn from Cantova [Lettres Edijiante! is' CtiricufeSy 

 Tom. XV. p. 309, 310], at the Caroline Iflands, where dead Chiefs are alfo worfliip- 

 ped, called a Tahutup ; and that, by foftcning or finking the ftrong founding letters, at 

 the beginning and at the end of this latter word, the Ahiitu of the Carolines, the Aili 

 of the Ladrones, .ind the Eatooa of the South Pacific Iflands, aflume fuch a fimilarity 

 in pronunciation (for we can I'.avc no other guide), as ftrongly marks one common ori- 

 ginal. Once more ; we learn from Le Gobien, that the Marianne people call their Chiefs 

 Chamorrisy or Chamoris, And, by foftcning the afpiratc Ch into' 7", and the harfli- 



nefs 



