j6 2 COOK’s VOYAGE. 
in this part of the voyage, than to have eftablifhed the faft 
beyond all controverfy. 
As the two countries lie very near each other, and the inter- 
mediate fpaceis fullofillands, itisreafonabletofuppcfethat they 
were both peopled from one common flock: yet no intercourse 
appears to have been kept up between them ; for if there had, the 
cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, plantains, & other fruits of New Guinea, 
which are equally neceflary for the fupport of life, would cer- 
tainly have been tranfplanted to New Holland, whare no traces 
of them are to be found. The Author of the “ Hifloire des 
Navigationes aux Terres Auftrales,” in his account of La 
Maire’s voyage, has given a vocabulary of the language that is, 
fpoken in an ifland near New Britain, and we find, by com- 
paring that vocabulary with the words which we learnt in New 
Holland, that the languages are not the fame. If therefore it 
fhould appear, that the languages of New Britain and New 
Guinea are the fame, there will be reafon to fuppofe that New 
Britain and New Guinea were peopled from a common flock ; 
but that the inhabitants of New Holland had a different origin,, 
notwithftanding the proximity of the countries. 
CHAP. X. 
The Paffage from New Guinea to the If and of Savu, and tht 
T ranfadions there. 
W E made fail, from noon on Monday the 3d to noon on 
Tuefday the 4th, ftanding to the weftward, and all the 
time kept in foundings, having from fourteen to thirty fathom ; 
not reo-ular, but fometimes more,, fome times lefs. At noon on: 
the 4th, vvt were in fourteen fathom, and latitude 6° 44' S. r 
longitude 223° 51' W,; our courfe and diftance fince the 3d at 
noon, were S. 76 W. one hundred and twenty miles to the 
wefhvard. At noon on the 5 th of September, we were in lati- 
tude 7 0 25' S., longitude 225 0 41' W.; having been in found- 
ings the whole time from ten to twenty fathom. 
At half an hour after one in the morning of the next day, 
we pa fled a fmall ifland which bore from us N. N. W. diftant 
between three and foui miles; and at day-light we difcovered 
another low ifland, extending from N. N. W. to N. N. E. 
diftant about two or three leagues. Upon this ifland, which 
did not appear to be very fmall, I believe I fhould have landed 
to examine its produce, if the wind had not blown too frefh to 
admit of it. When we palled this ifland we had only ten 
fathom water, with a rocky bottom ; and therefore I was afraid 
ef running down to leeward, left l fhould £iee! with fboal water 
