| English. | S. Sea Islands. | Malay. | Javanese. | Prince’s Isl. | Madagas. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One, | Tahie, | Satou, | Sigi, | Hegie, | Isse. |
| Two, | Rua, | Dua, | Lorou, | Dua, | Rua. |
| Three, | Torou, | Tiga, | Tullu, | Tollu, | Tellou. |
| Four, | Haa, | Ampat, | Pappat, | Opat, | Effats. |
| Five, | Reina, | Lima, | Limo, | Limah, | Limi. |
| Six, | Wheney, | Annam, | Nunnam, | Gunnap, | Ene. |
| Seven, | Hetu, | Tudju, | Petu, | Tudju, | Titou. |
| Eight, | Waru, | Delapau, | Wolo, | Delapan, | Walon. |
| Nine, | Iva, | Sembilan, | Songo, | Salapan, | Sivi. |
| Ten, | Ahouroa, | Sapoulou, | Sapoulou, | Sapoulou, | Tourou. |
In the language of Madagascar, there are other words similar to words of the same import in the Malay. The nose in Malay is called Erung, at Madagascar Ourou; Lida, the tongue, is Lala; Tangan, the hand, is Tang; and Tanna, the ground, is Taan.
From the similitude between the language of the Eastern Indies, and the islands of the South Sea, conjectures may be formed with respect to the peopling those countries, which cannot easily be referred to Madagascar. The inhabitants of Java and Madagascar appear to be a different race; the Javanese is of an olive complexion, and has long hair; the native of Madagascar is black, and his head is not covered with hair, but wool; and yet perhaps this will not conclude against their having common ancestors so strongly as at first appears. It does not seem less difficult to account for the personal difference between a native of England and France, as an effect of mere local situation, than for the difference between the natives of Java and Madagascar; yet it has never been supposed, that England and France were not peopled from common ancestors. If two natives of England marry in their own country, and afterwards remove to our settlements in the West Indies, the children that are conceived and born there will have the complexion and cast of countenance that distinguish the Creole; if they return, the children conceived and born afterwards, will have no such characteristics. If it be said that the mother’s mind being impressed with different external objects, impresses corresponding features and complexion upon the child during her pregnancy, it will be as difficult to refer the effect into this cause, upon mere physical principles, as into the other; for it can no more be shown how a mere idea, conceived in the mother’s imagination, can change the corporeal form of her infant, than how its form can be changed by mere local situation. We know that people within the small circle of Great Britain and Ireland, who are born at the distance of two or three hundred miles from each other, will be distinguished by the Scotch face, the Welsh face, and the Irish face; may we not then reasonably suppose, that there are in nature qualities which act powerfully as efficient causes, and yet are not cognizable by any of the five modes of perception which we call senses? A deaf man, who sees the string of a harpsichord vibrate, when a corresponding tone is produced by blowing into a flute at a distance, will see an effect of which he can no more conceive the cause to exist in the blowing air into the flute, than we can conceive the cause of the personal difference of the various inhabitants of the globe to exist in mere local situation; nor can he any more form an idea of the cause itself in one case, than we can in the other: what happens to him then, in consequence of having but four senses instead of five, may, with respect to many phenomena of nature, happen to us, in consequence of having but five senses instead of six, or any greater number.
Possibly, however, the learning of ancient Egypt might run in two courses, one through Africa, and the other through Asia, disseminating the same words in each, especially terms of number, which might thus become part of the language of people who never had any communication with each other.
We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water which we had taken in at Prince’s Island should have had any share in our sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the ship between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr. Banks was among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his life. We were very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was nothing better than an hospital, in which those that were able to go about, were too few to attend the sick, who were confined to their hammocks; and we had almost every night a dead body to commit to the sea. In the course of about six weeks, we buried Mr. Sporing, a gentleman who was in Mr. Banks’s retinue, Mr. Parkinson, his natural-history painter, Mr. Green the astronomer, the boatswain, the carpenter and his mate, Mr. Monkhouse the midshipman, who had fothered the ship after she had been stranded on the coast of New Holland, our old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the ship’s cook, the corporal of the marines, two of the carpenter’s crew, a midshipman, and nine seamen; in all three-and-twenty persons, besides the seven that we buried at Batavia.
CHAP. XIV.
OUR ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; SOME REMARKS ON THE RUN FROM JAVA HEAD TO THAT PLACE; A DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPE, AND OF SAINT HELENA; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HOTTENTOTS, AND THE RETURN OF THE SHIP TO ENGLAND.
On Friday the 15th of March, about ten o’clock in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in seven fathom, with an ouzey bottom. The west point of the bay, called the Lion’s Tail, bore W. N. W. and the castle S. W., distant about a mile and a half. I immediately waited upon the Governor, who told me that I should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not a few; and a house was soon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two shillings a-head per day.
Our run from Java Head, to this place, afforded very few subjects of remark that can be of use to future navigators; such as occurred, however, I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we got the general south-east trade-wind, during which time, we did not advance above 5° to the southward, and 3° to the west, having variable light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry weather, and an unwholesome air, occasioned probably by the load of vapours which the eastern trade-wind, and westerly monsoons, bring into these latitudes, both which blow in these seas at the time of year when we happened to be there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10° or 12° S., and the westerly as far as 6° or 8°; in the intermediate space the winds are variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome; it certainly aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and particularly the flux, which was not in the least degree checked by any medicine, so that whoever was seized with it, considered himself as a dead man; but we had no sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to feel its salutary effects: we buried indeed several of our people afterwards, but they were such as had been taken on board in a state so low and feeble, that there was scarcely a possibility of their recovery. At first we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have been brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince’s Island, or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least reason to believe that this suspicion was well grounded, for all the ships that came from Batavia at the same season, suffered in the same degree, and some of them even more severely, though none of them touched at Prince’s island in their way.
A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies about the ship for several nights successively, and as these birds are known to roost every night on shore, we thought them an indication that some island was not far distant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which, in different charts, is very differently laid down both in name and situation.
The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java is about 3° W., and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track of ships to the longitude of 288° W., latitude 22° S., after which it increased apace, so that in longitude 295°, latitude 23°, the variation was 10° 20ʹ W.: in seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude, it increased two degrees; in the same space farther to the west, it increased five degrees: in latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24° 20ʹ; in latitude 29°, longitude 317°, it was 26° 10ʹ; and was then stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but in latitude 34°, longitude 333°, we observed it twice to be 28-¼° W., and this was its greatest variation, for in latitude 35-½°, longitude 337°, it was 24°, and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape Anguillas, it was 22° 30ʹ, and in Table Bay 20° 30ʹ W.