THE GREAT OCEAN. 389 



It is well known that in New Zealand, in the 

 islands of the second province, as far as Easter 

 Island, which lies so remote to the east, and on the 

 separate group of the Sandwich islands, there 

 is only one people, which is almost every where 

 at the same degree of civilization, has similar 

 manners and customs, and speaks the same lan- 

 guage, the dialects of which are distinguished 

 only by local variations in the pronunciation ; so 

 that mariners who have collected words on one 

 island, have often been able, with their help, to 

 make themselves understood on others very remote ; 

 the natives of the Sandwich islands, by those of 

 the Friendly islands ; and Tupia, an islander of 

 the latter group, by the New Zealanders. 



We are obliged to Messrs. Mariner and T. Mar- 

 tin for a complete grammar of the dialect of 

 Tonga *, which enables us to examine more parti- 

 cularly the language of Eastern Polynesia. We 

 recognize in it the Malay system of language in 

 the greatest simplicity, and, according to our 

 opinion, in a state of undeveloped infancy. It is 

 a pleasing, childish lisping, which can scarcely be 

 called a language. 



The Tonga language is more nearly allied to 

 the infinitely more complicated Tagalese, than to 

 the Malay ; it has a more frequent use of the 

 article, and particularly distinguishes the plurals 



♦ An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, from the 

 Communications of M. W. Mariner, by T. Martin, M. D. 



London, 1818. ^ 



C C 3 



