THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 373 



I 

 Hamoa, 



matters, learnt the three followins; words of the dialetH: of \777 



■-• July 



Tamolao*, a chief man. 



Tamaety^ a chief woman. 



Solle^ a common man,. 



Feejee, 



* In two or three preceding notes, extrafls have been made from the Lettres Edi- 

 jkmtes y Cr.trieufes, as marking a ftrong refemblance between fome of the cuftoms of 

 the inhabitants of the Caroline Iflands, and thofe which Captain Cook defcribes as 

 prevailing at an immenfe diftance, in the iflands which he vifited in the South Pacific 

 Ocean. PofCbly, however, the prefumption, arifing from this refemblance, that all 

 thefe iflands were peopled by the fame nation, or tribe,^ may be refifted, under the 

 plauf.ble pretence, that cuftoms very fimilar prevail amongft very diftant people, with- 

 out inferring any other common fource, befides the general principles of human na- 

 ture, the fame in all ages, and every part of the globe. The reader, perhaps, will 

 not tiiink this pretence applicable to the matter before us, if he attends to the follow- 

 ing very obvious diftinclion : Thofe cuftoms which have their foundation in wants 

 that are common to the whole human fpecies, and which are confined to the contri- 

 vance of means to relieve thofe wants, may well be fuppofed to bear a ftrong refem- 

 blance, without warranting the conclufion, that they who ufe them have copied each 

 other, or have derived them from one common fource ; human fagacity being the fame 

 every where, and the means adapted to the relief of any particular natural want, efpe- 

 cially in countries fimilarly uncultivated, being but few. Thus the moft diftant 

 tribes, as widely feparatcd as l^rra del Fuego is from the iflands Eaft of Kamt- 

 fchatka, may, both of them, produce their fire, by rubbing two fticks upon each other, 

 without giving us the leaft foundation for fuppofing, that either of them imitated the 

 other, or derived the invention from a fource of inftrudion common to both. But 

 this feems not to be the cafe, with regard to thofe cuftoms to which no general 

 principle of human nature has given birth, and which have their eftablifhment folely 

 from the endlefs varieties of local whim, and national fafhion. Of this latter kind, 

 thofe cuftoms obvioufly are, that belong both to the North, and to the South 

 Pacific Iflands, from which, we would infer, that they were originally one nation ; 

 and the men of Mangeea, and the men of the New Philippines, who pay their re- 

 fpefls to a perfon whnm they mean to honour, by rubbing his hand over their faces, 

 bid fair to have learnt their mode of falutation in the fame fchool. But if this obfer- 

 vation fhould not have removed the doubts of the fceptical refiner, probably he will 

 hardly venture to perfift in denying the identity of race, contended for in the prefent 

 inftance, when he ftiall obfci've, that, to the proof drawn from afBnity of cuftoms, 

 we have it in our power to add that nioft unexceptionable one, drawn from affinity of 

 lan^uao-e. Tamoha, we now knov/, is the word ufed at Hamoa, one of the Friendly 

 Iflands, to fignify a Chief; and whoever looks into the Lettres EdtfimtesiS Curieufes, 

 will lee, that this is the very name by which the inhabitants of the Caroline Iflands 



diftingulfli 



