the l sound is the common one, but it becomes r before the vowel i (or e, as we 
pronounce it) ; but these two letters are constantly interchanged throughout 
the languages. The Rev. Mr. Moulton, who has lived in the Tonga Islands, 
where he was connected with the Wesleyan missions, will be able to give you 
some information respecting the people of those islands. He is accompanied 
by a native gentleman. 
Rev. J. E. Moulton.— I did not come here with the intention of speaking; 
but as I have been called upon, I may offer a few words. Any person who has 
had personal intercourse with the race I have been amongst will acknowledge 
the wonderfully accurate manner in which it has been described in the paper 
we have heard read this evening. With very few exceptions I think I may say 
that what we have just heard coincides with my own experience after long- 
personal knowledge. With regard to the division of the people made by 
Mr. Whitmee, I am quite certain it will ultimately be accepted on all hands. 
Writing on ethnology and geography at home is a very different thing from 
going out to the places treated of and acquiring a personal acquaintance with 
the people. Here we have to rely on the imperfect accounts given by the old 
navigators, and confirmed, I might almost say, — but, at any rate reappearing 
in our modern books and periodicals. I have seen very late editions of 
some of those books published for the guidance, or rather the misguidance, of 
our captains and sailors; and I have found in them the same errors which have 
been exploded numbers of times, and the repetition of which has in some 
cases led to mischievous results. Those who provide geographies without a 
personal acquaintance with the places and people have to depend upon those 
old books. I remember that two or three years ago, having to write a geo- 
graphical work for a college, I was led to precisely the same division as 
Mr. Whitmee, having had personal experience of the races mentioned. I 
trust that his designation of the Sawaiori race may be accepted ; it is the 
only name that can correctly be given to that people, who, I think, have a right 
to be consulted in the choice of the name by which they are to be designated. 
Now, I belong to Tonga ; but at the same time I may say that there we 
cheerfully make way for our father, or mother, Samoa. I was forgetting that 
I was speaking in the presence of a gentleman from New Zealand, and perhaps 
he, as a Maori representative, will dissent from that statement ; otherwise I 
think we shall all agree. We certainly do not think “small beer” of our- 
selves, and although we make way for Samoa, wc are not content to be known 
under other names. Sawaiori we must regard as a very prominent group in 
Polynesia, and the term Sawaiori appropriately groups all that series of 
islands under one head. I have had Tongan pupils under me, and I think 
I may say that the people are certainly a most superior people. I remember 
reading in one of the books of the old navigators an account written by a 
captain who went out to that part of the world in very early times, and he 
spoke of those people as some of the finest savages in the world ; and I may 
add that under the influence of Christianity they have not at all deteriorated. 
Considering their isolation and opportunities, I think they will bear comparison 
with any of the races of the world. Of course they have not 1800 years of 
VOL. XIV. D 
