NATIVE ORTHOGRAPHY. 19 
The Tahitian was the first Polynesian language 
reduced to writing. In acquiring a knowledge of 
its character and peculiarities, and reducing it to 
a regular system, the Missionaries had to proceed 
alone. In adapting letters to its sounds, forming 
its orthography, and exhibiting the vernacular 
tongue in writing to the people, presenting to the 
eye that which had before been applied only to the 
ear, and thus furnishing a vehicle by which light 
and knowledge might be conveyed through a new 
avenue to the mind, they were unaided by the 
labours of any who had preceded them, and were 
therefore the pioneers of those who might follow. 
That their difficulties were great, must be already 
obvious. They advanced with deliberation and 
care ; and though the Tahitian dialect, as written 
by them, is doubtless imperfect, and susceptible 
of great improvement, the circumstance of its 
having formed the basis of those subsequently 
written, the ease with which it is acquired, and 
the facility with which it is used by the natives 
themselves, are evidences of its accuracy and its 
utility. 
The Missionaries have been charged with affec¬ 
tation in their orthography, &c. but so far from 
this, they have studied nothing with more atten¬ 
tion than simplicity and perspicuity. The decla¬ 
ration and the pronunciation of the natives formed 
their only rule in fixing the spelling of proper 
names, as well as other parts of the language. 
They aimed at precision, and having adopted the 
English character, affixed to each letter a distinct 
and invariable sound. The letters of each word 
constitute the word, so that a person pronouncing 
the letters used in spelling a word, would, in fact, 
pronounce the word itself. Pursuing this plan, 
c 2 
