POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE. 219 
us from the momentary danger. In half an 
hour the regular trade-wind returned, and with 
the liveliest wishes for the future welfare of the 
good Tahaitians, we lost sight of their lovely 
island. 
To the remarks concerning them already 
made, I will add some on their language, from 
the work on this subject which I have before 
mentioned. The author says, ‘* The language 
spoken on most of the islands of the South Sea, 
and therefore called the Polynesian, may be 
considered either as primitive, or as related to, 
and descended from, a common source with the 
Malay.” It is undoubtedly very old, for these 
people have been from an unknown period 
separated from all others, and before the ar- 
rival of Europeans among them, considered 
themselves as the whole human race. 
Although, in comparison with HKuropean Jan- 
guages, that of Tahaiti, as belonging to an igno- 
rant and uncultivated people, is necessarily 
very defective, it perhaps surpasses all others 
in strength, precision, and simplicity,—in the 
personal pronouns especially. Its resemblance 
to the Hebrew, in the conjugation of the verbs, 
1:2 
