INTRODUCTION. 
/ 
Iflands in this lafl voyage, has added fome links to the 
chain. But Captain Cook had not an opportunity of carry¬ 
ing his refearches into the more Wefterly parts of the North 
Pacific. The Reader, therefore, of the following work will 
not, perhaps, think that the Editor was idly employed when 
he fubjoined fome notes, which. contain abundant proof 
that the inhabitants of the Ladrones, or Marianne iflands, 
and thofe of the Carolines, are to be traced to the fame 
common fource, with thofe of the iflands vifited by our 
fhips. With the like view, of exhibiting a ftriking picture 
of the amazing extent of this Oriental language, which 
marks, if not a common original, at leaft an intimate inter- 
courfe - between the inhabitants of places fo very remote 
from each other, he has inferted a comparative table- of 
their numerals, upon a more enlarged plan than any that 
has hitherto been executed *. 
Our Britifh difcoverers have not only thrown a blaze of 
light on the migrations of the tribe which has fo wonder¬ 
fully fpread itfelf throughout the iflands in the Eaftern 
Ocean; but they have alfo favoured us with much curious 
information concerning another of the families of the earth, 
tc themfelves, but alfo to that general language which is found to prevail in, and to be 
“ indigenous to, all the iflands of the Eaftern feas; from Madagafcar to the remoteft of 
<c Captain Cook’s difcoveries, comprehending a wider extent than die Roman or any 
K other tongue has yet boafted. In different places, it has been more or lefs mixed and 
tc corrupted; but between the moft diflimilar branches, an eminent famenefs of many 
u radical words is apparent; and in fome very diftant from each other, in point of fi- 
u tuation: As, for inftance, the Philippines and Madagafcar, the deviation of the words 
“ is fcarcely more than is obferved in the dialects of neighbouring provinces of the fame 
16 kingdom.” 
* We are indebted to Sir Jofeph Banks, for a general out-line of this, in Hawkef- 
worth’s Collection, Vol. iii. p. 777. The Reader will find our enlarged Table at the 
end of the third volume, Appendix, N° 2. 
Vol. I. k whofe 
lxxiii 
