INTRODUCTION. kxiii 



in this laft voyage, has added fome links to the chain. 

 But Captain Cook had not an opportunity of carrying his 

 refearches into the more Wefterly parts of the North Pacific. 

 The Reader, therefore, of the following work will not, per- 

 haps, think that the Editor was idly employed when he 

 fubjoined fome notes, which contain abundant proof that 

 the inhabitants of the Ladrones, or Marianne iflands, and 

 thofe of the Carolines, are to be traced to the fame com- 

 mon fource, with thofe of the iflands vifited by our fhips. 

 With the like view, of exhibiting a ftriking picflure of the 

 amazing extent of this Oriental language, which marks, if 

 not a common original, at leaft an intimate intercourfe be- 

 tween the inhabitants of places fo very remote from each 

 other, he has inferted a comparative table of their numerals, 

 upon a more enlarged plan than any that has hitherto been 

 executed*. 



Our Britifh difcoverers have not only thrown a blaze of 

 light on the migrations of the tribe which has fo wonder- 

 fully fpread itfelf throughout the iflands in the Eaftern 

 Ocean ; but they have alfo favoured us with much curious 

 information concerning another of the families of the earth, 

 whofe lot has fallen in lefs hofpitable climates. We fpeak 

 of the Efquimaux, hitherto only found feated on the coafts 

 of Labradore and Kudlbn's Bay, and who diflfer in feveral 



*' branches, an eminent famcnefs of many radical words is apparent ; and in feme 

 " very diftant from eacli other, in point of fituation : As, for inftance, the Philip- 

 " pines and Madagafcar, the deviation of the words is fcarcely more than is obferved 

 *' in the dialefls of neighbouring provinces of the fame kingdom." 



* We are indebted to Sir Jofeph Banks, for a general out-line of this, in Hawkef- 

 worth's Collection, Vol. iii. p. 777. The Reader will fold our enlarged Tabic at 

 the end of the third volume. Appendix, No. 2. 



Vol. I. k , charac- 



