* 



138 THE WHALEMAN ; OR, 



we have had any acquaintance, from East Cape 

 to the north as far as our wreck, have no written 

 language. We could not learn from them that 

 any one had ever attempted to instruct them, or 

 reduce their language to some system, or that 

 any teacher in religion had ever visited them. 

 Without a written language, or books, or teach- 

 ers, or oral instruction in some form, the certain 

 results must invariably be, that from age to age, 

 they will continue in the same condition of men- 

 tal ignorance, moral blindness, and physical deg- 

 radation. 



It was the opinion of Mr. Abram Osborn, Jr., 

 who became a proficient in the language of the 

 natives, and could converse with them with ease 

 and fluency, that it was simple, and he believed 

 could be readily reduced to some systematic 

 form. The method he resorted to, in order to 

 acquire the language, was simply this : when he 

 heard a native word, he would write it, accord- 

 ing to its sound, upon a piece of copper, and 

 place opposite to it its English definition. He 

 made inquiries of the natives as to the meaning 

 of their words, and what they called certain 

 things. In this manner he became very familiar 

 with all the terms and phrases which they used. 



The following are a few specimens of native 

 language. English words are placed in the 



