We were able to collect several hundreds of the words; and, amongst these, are terms that express numbers as far as a hundred thousand; beyond which they never would reckon. It is probable, indeed, that they are not able to go farther; for, after having got thus far, we observed that they commonly used a word which expresses an indefinite number. A short specimen, selected from the larger vocabulary, is here inserted, with the corresponding words, of the same signification as used at Otaheite, on the opposite column; which, while it will give, as we may say, ocular demonstration of their being dialects of the same language, will, at the same time, point out the particular letters by the insertion, omission, or alteration of which the variations of the two dialects from each other have been effected.

It must be observed, however, that our vocabularies of this sort must necessarily be liable to great mistakes. The ideas of those from whom we were to learn the words were so different from ours, that it was difficult to fix them to the object of inquiry. Or, if this could be obtained, to learn an unknown tongue from an instructor who did not know a single word of any language that his scholar was conversant with, could not promise to produce much. But even, when these difficulties were surmounted, there still remained a fruitful source of mistake. I mean, inaccuracy in catching exactly the true sound of a word to which our ears had never been accustomed, from persons whose mode of pronunciation was, in general, so indistinct, that it seldom happened that any two of us, in writing down the same word from the same mouth, made use of the same vowels in representing it. Nay, we even very commonly differed about consonants, the sounds of which are least liable to ambiguity. Besides all this, we found, by experience, that we had been led into strange corruptions of some of the most common words, either from the natives endeavouring to imitate us, or from our having misunderstood them. Thus, cheeto was universally used by us to express a thief, though totally different from the real word in the language of Tongataboo. The mistake arose from a prior one into which we had ran when at New Zealand; for though the word that signifies thief there, be absolutely the same that belongs to the dialect of the Friendly Islands (being kaeehaa at both places), yet, by some blunder, we had used the word teete first at New Zealand, and afterward at Tongataboo, on our arrival there. The natives, endeavouring to imitate us as nearly as they could, and so fabricating the word cheeto, this, by a complication of mistakes, was adopted by us as their own. All possible care has been taken to make the following table as correct as possible:

English.Friendly Islands.Otaheite.
The sun,Elaa,Eraa.
Fire,Eafoi,Eahoi.
Thunder,Fatoore,Pateere.
Rain,Ooha,Eooa.
The wind,Matangee,Mataee.
Warm,Mafanna,Mahanna.
The clouds,Ao,Eao.
Land,Fonooa,Fenooa.
Water,Avy,Evy.
Sleep,Mohe,Moe.
A man,Tangata,Taata.
A woman,Vefaine,Waheine.
A young girl,Taheine,Toonea.
A servant, or person of mean rank,Tooa,Toutou, or teou.
The dawn, or day-break,Aho,Aou.
The hair,Fooroo,Eroroo.
The tongue,Elelo,Erero.
The ear,Tareenga,Tareea.
The beard,Koomoo,Ooma.
The sea,Tahee,Taee.
A boat, or canoe,Wakka,Evaa.
Black,Oole,Ere.
Red,Goola,Oora, oora.
A lance or spear,Tao,Tao.
A parent,Motooa,Madooa.
What is that?Kohaeea?Yahaeea?
To hold fast,Amou,Mou.
To wipe or clean any thingHoro,Horoee.
To rise up,Etoo,Atoo.
To cry or shed tears,Tangee,Taee.
To eat or chew,Eky,Ey.
Yes,Ai,Ai.
No,Kaee,Aee.
You,Koe,Oe.
I,Ou,Wou.
Ten,Ongofooro,Ahooroo.

Having now concluded my remarks on these islands and people, I shall take my final leave of them, after giving some account of the astronomical and nautical observations that were made during our stay.

And first I must take notice, that the difference of longitude between Annamooka and Tongataboo, is somewhat less than was marked in the chart and narrative of my last voyage. This error might easily arise, as the longitude of each was then found without any connection with the other. But now the distance between them is determined to a degree of precision that excludes all possibility of mistake; which the following table will illustrate:

The latitude of the observatory at Tongataboo, by the mean of several observations,21°8ʹ19ʺsouth.
The longitude, by the mean of one hundred and thirty-one sets of lunar observations, amounting to above a thousand observed distances, between the moon, sun, and stars,184°55ʹ18ʺeast.
The difference of longitude, made by the time-keeper, between the above observatory, and that at Annamooka,0160
Hence, the longitude of Annamooka is1851118east.
By the time-keeper it is, Greenwich rate,1861227
New Zealand rate,184370
Its latitude20150

N. B.—The observatory at Tongataboo was near the middle of the north side of the island; and that it Annamooka, on its west side; but the chart will elucidate this.

The time-keeper was too slow for mean time at Greenwich, on the first of July at noon, by 12h 34m 33s,2; and her daily rate, at that time, was loosing, on mean time, 1m,783 per day. This rate will now be used for finding the longitude by the time-keeper; and 184° 55ʹ 18ʺ, or 12h 19m 41s,2, will be taken as the true longitude of Tongataboo, east from Greenwich.

By the mean of several observations, the south end of the needle was found to dip

At Lefooga, one of the Hapaee islands,36°55ʹ
Tongataboo,3911⁄2