7© TRAVELS IN 
row it from each other ; but that it fhould 
be common among the iflanders of the South 
Seas, who, firice their country was firft inha- 
bited, had never feen ftrangers before Cook and 
Bougainville, is truly aftonifhing. 
I was very defirous of interrogating mi- 
nutely the people of the horde on this fub- 
je£t. I wifhed alfo to propofe fome queftions 
to them refpefting other cuftoms which ap- 
peared to me fmgular; but difficulties in- 
creafed the more I advanced into the country. 
The Kabobiquas fpoke a particular language ; 
and this dialed, though accompanied with 
the clapping noife of the Hottentots, was un- 
derilood only by the Koraquas^ who, on ac- 
count of their vicinity, kept up fome inter- 
courfe with them. 
The cafe v^as the fame with the language 
of the Koraquas, in regard to their neigh- 
bours the Nimiqucis. When the chief of the 
horde, therefore, wiflied to fpeak to me, he 
addrefled what he had to fay to my Koraquas, 
who tranflated it for the Nimiquas into their 
language ; and the latter, tranflating it in their 
turn, tranfmitted it to the Hottentots of Klaas 
Bafter's horde, who explained it to me in 
2 theirs* 
