*44 



A VOYAGE TO 



'779- aims, in the fame manner as the Friendly Iflanders, had a 



March. 



very pleafing effect. 



It is very remarkable, that the people of thefe iflands arc 

 great gamblers. They have a game very much like our 

 draughts ; but, if one may judge from the number of 

 fquares, it is much more intricate. The board is about two 

 feet long, and is divided into two hundred and thirty-eight 

 fquares, of which there are fourteen in a row, and they 



their compofitions in private, and threw out the inferior voices, before they ven- 

 tured to appear before thofe who were fuppofed to be judges of their fkill in 

 mufic. 



In their regular concerts, each man had a bamboo, which was of a different 

 length, and gave a different tone: thefe they beat againft the ground, and each per- 

 former, aflilted by the note given by this inftrument, repeated the fame note, accom- 

 panying it by words, by which means it was rendered fometimes fliort, and fometimes 

 long. In this manner, they fung in chorus, and not only produced octaves to each 

 other, according to their different fpecies of voice, but fell on concords, fuch as were 

 not difagreeable to the ear. 



Now, to overturn this fact, by the rcafoning of perfons who did not hear thefe per- 

 formances, is rather an arduous tafk. And, yet, there is great improbability that any 

 uncivilized people fhould, by accident, arrive at this degree of perfection in the art of 

 mufic, which we imagine can only be attained by dint of ftudy, and knowledge of the 

 fyftem and theory upon which mulical compofition is founded. Such miferable jargon 

 as our country Pfalm-fmgcrs practife, which may be juftly deemed the lowed clafs of 

 counterpoint, or finding in feveral parts, cannot he acquired in the coarfe manner in 

 which it is performed in the churches, without confiderable time and practice. It is, 

 therefore, (carcely credible, that a people, femi-baibarous, fhould naturally arrive at 

 arty perfection in that art, which it is much doubted whether the Greeks and Roman--', 

 with all their refinements in mufic, ever attained, and which the Chinefe, who have 

 been longer civilized than any people on the globe, have not yet found cut. 



If Captain Hurney (who, by the teftimony of his father, perhaps the greatefl mufi- 

 cal theoriit of this or any other age, was able to h;»ve done it) had written down, in 

 European notes, thcconcordsth.it thefe people fung ; and if thefe concords had been 

 fuch as European ears could tolerate, there would have been no longer doubt of 

 the fact : but, as it is, it would, in my opinion, be a rafli judgment to venture to 

 alhrm that they did or did not underftand counterpoint ; and therefore I fear that 

 this curious matter mult be confidered as ftill remaining undecided. 



2 make 



