22S CHARACTER OF THE LANGUAGE 
radically the same with the languages spoken by 
the people of the Sandwich, the Society, and the 
Friendly Islands; and is evidently derived from the 
same source. That a language spoken by a few 
savages, in so isolated a situation as New Zealand, 
should be supposed to be very deficient, is no 
matter of surprise ; and that linguists of the first 
cliaracter should assume that the people could 
have but few modes, and some of those very in- 
definite ones, of expressing themselves on any 
abstract subject, is perfectly natural. But the 
language of New Zealand — and, as I have been 
informed, of most of the South-Sea Islands — is 
remarkably rich, admits of a very varied phraseo- 
logy, abounds in turns of peculiar nicety, and is 
capable of being reduced to the most precise 
grammatical principles. It abounds with words, 
and with varieties of expression ; and the shades 
of difference in the meaning of words is some- 
times so minute, as to render it very difficult to 
give a correct translation ; while, still, that mean- 
ing is perfectly understood by a native ; and may 
be equally well understood by a foreigner, though 
unable to render it correctly into his own 
tongue ; at least, not without much circumlocu- 
tion. It will scarcely be credited, when stated, 
that the New Zealanders have a distinct name for 
every tree and plant in their land ; of which 
there are six or seven hundred, or more, different 
kinds. I was perfectly astonished, though I ought 
net to have been so, when a celebrated botanist. 
