A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xv Part 51

From what has been said of the present king, it would be natural to suppose, that he had the highest rank of any person in the islands. But, to our great surprise, we found it is not so; for Latoolibooloo, the person who was pointed out to me as king, when I first visited Tongataboo, and three women, are, in some respects, superior to Poulaho himself. On our enquiring who these extraordinary personages were, whom they distinguish by the name and t.i.tle of Tammaha?[191] we were told, that the late king, Poulaho's father, had a sister of equal rank, and elder than himself; that she, by a man that came from the island of Feejee, had a son and two daughters, and that these three persons, as well as their mother, rank above Futtafaihe the king.

[Footnote 191: The reader need not be reminded that Tamoloa, which signifies a chief, in the dialect of Hamao, and Tammaha, become the same word, by the change of a single letter, the articulation of which is not very strongly marked.--D.]

We endeavoured, in vain, to trace the reason of this singular pre-eminence of the _Tammahas_, for we could learn nothing besides this account of their pedigree. The mother, and one of the daughters called Tooeela-kaipa, live at Vavaoo. Latoolibooloo, the son, and the other daughter, whose name is Moungoula-kaipa, reside at Tongataboo. The latter is the woman who is mentioned to have dined with me on the 21st of June. This gave occasion to our discovering her superiority over the king, who would not eat in her presence, though she made no scruple to do so before him, and received from him the customary obeisance, by touching her foot. We never had an opportunity of seeing him pay this mark of respect to Latoolibooloo, but we have observed him leave off eating, and have his victuals put aside, when the latter came into the same house. Latoolibooloo a.s.sumed the privilege of taking any thing from the people, even if it belonged to the king; and yet, in the ceremony called _Natche_, he a.s.sisted only in the same manner as the other princ.i.p.al men. He was looked upon, by his countrymen, as a madman; and many of his actions seemed to confirm this judgment. At Eooa, they shewed me a good deal of land said to belong to him; and I saw there a son of his, a child, whom they distinguished by the same t.i.tle as his father. The son of the greatest prince in Europe could not be more humoured and caressed than this little _Tammaha_ was.

The language of the Friendly Islands has the greatest affinity imaginable to that of New Zealand, of Wateeoo, and Mangeea; and, consequently, to that of Otaheite and the Society Islands. There are also many of their words the same with those used by the natives of Cocos Island, as appears from the vocabulary collected there by Le Maire and Schouten.[192] The mode of p.r.o.nunciation differs, indeed, considerably, in many instances, from that both of New Zealand and Otaheite, but still a great number of words are either exactly the same, or so little changed, that their common original may be satisfactorily traced. The language, as spoken at the Friendly Islands, is sufficiently copious for all the ideas of the people; and we had many proofs of its being easily adapted to all musical purposes, both in song and in recitative, besides being harmonious enough in common conversation. Its component parts, as far as our scanty acquaintance with it enabled us to judge, are not numerous; and, in some of its rules, it agrees with other known languages. As for instance, we could easily discern the several degrees of comparison, as used in the Latin, but none of the inflections of nouns and verbs.

[Footnote 192: See this vocabulary, at the end of vol. ii. of Dalrymple's Collection of Voyages. And yet, though Tasman's people used the words of this vocabulary in speaking to the natives of Tongataboo, (his Amsterdam,) we are told, in the accounts of his voyage, that they did not understand one another;--a circ.u.mstance worth observing, as it shews how cautious we should be, upon the scanty evidence afforded by such transient visits as Tasman's, and, indeed, as those of most of the subsequent navigators of the Pacific Ocean, to found any argument about the affinity, or want of affinity, of the languages of the different islands. No one, now, will venture to say, that a Cocos man, and one of Tongataboo, could not understand each other. Some of the words of Horn Island, another of Schouten's discoveries, also belong to the dialect of Tongataboo.--See Dalrymple, as above.--D.]

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 enquiry. 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 p.r.o.nunciation was, in general, so indistinct, that it seldom happened that any two of us, in writing down the fame 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 run, 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 afterwards 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. Great 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 Tooa, Toutou, _or_ teou.

of mean rank_,

_The dawn_, or Aho Aou.

_daybreak_,

English. _Friendly Islands. Otaheite_.

_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_ Horo, Haroee.

_any thing_,

_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_, Ongofooroo, 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 ill.u.s.trate:--

The lat.i.tude of the observatory at Tongataboo, by the mean of several observations 21 8' 19"S.

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, son, and stars 184 55' 88"E.

The difference of longitude, made by the time-keeper, between the above observatory and that at Anamooka 0 16 0

Hence, the longitude of Annamooka is 185 11 18 E.

By the time {Greenwich rate 186 12 27 keeper it is {New Zealand rate 184 37 0 Its lat.i.tude 20 15 0

N.B. The observatory at Tongataboo was near the middle of the N. side of the island, and that at Annamooka on its W. side.

The time-keeper was too slow for mean time at Greenwich, on the first of July at noon, by 12h 34m 23',2; and her daily rate, at that time, was losing on mean time 1',783 per day. This rate will now be used for finding the longitude by the time-keeper, and 184 55' 18", or 12h 19m 41',2, will be taken as the true longitude of Tongataboo, E. from.

Greenwich.

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

At Leefooga, one of the Hepaee islands 36 55'

Tongataboo 39 1 1/2 The variation of the compa.s.s was found to be

At Annamooka, on board 0 30' 3 1/2"E, Anchor off Kotoo, between Annamooka and Hepaee 0 12 29 1/2 Anchor off Leefooga 10 11 40 Tongataboo, on board 9 44 5 1/2 Ditto, on sh.o.r.e 10 12 58

I can a.s.sign no reason why the variation is so much less at and near Annamooka, than at either of the two places. I can only say, that there is no fault in the observations; and that the variation ought to be more at Annamooka than the above, as it has been found to be so to the northward, southward, eastward, and westward of it. But disagreements in the variation, greater than this, even in the same needle, have been often observed. And I should not have taken notice of this instance, but from a belief that the cause, whatever it is, exists in the place, and not in the needles, for Mr Bayley found the same, or rather more difference.

The tides are more considerable at these islands, than at any other of my discoveries in this ocean, that lie within the tropics. At Annamooka it is high water, on the full and change days, nearly at six o'clock; and the tide rises and falls there, upon a perpendicular, about six feet. In the harbour of Tongataboo, it is high water on the full and change days, at fifty minutes past six. The tide rises and falls on those days, four feet nine inches, and three feet six inches at the Quadratures. In the channels between the islands, which lie in this harbour, it flows near tide and half-tide, that is, the flood continues to run up near three hours, after it is high water by the sh.o.r.e, and the ebb continues to run down, after it is flood by the sh.o.r.e. It is only in these channels, and in a few other places near the sh.o.r.es, that the motion of the water or tide is perceivable, so that I can only guess at the quarter from which the flood comes. In the road of Annamooka, it sets W.S.W., and the ebb the contrary; but it falls into the harbour of Tongataboo from the N.W., pa.s.ses through the two narrow channels, on each side of Hoolaiva, where it runs with considerable rapidity, and then spends itself in the _lagoon_. The ebb returns the same way, and runs with rather greater force. The N.W. tide is met, at the entrance of the _lagoon_, by one from the E.; but this, as I have before observed, was found to be very inconsiderable.[193]

[Footnote 193: Tongataboo has been visited several times by Europeans since Cook's last voyage, viz. by Perouse, in 1787; by Captain Edwards, in 1791; by D'Entrecasteaux, in 1793; and by some of the missionaries, in 1797. From the accounts furnished by some of these visits, several particulars might have been added to what has now been delivered. But they are comparatively unimportant, and did not seem to warrant any specific regard. Besides, if they had been more considerable, it would have been improper to antic.i.p.ate what belongs to another part of our work. On the whole, however, the information given by Captain Cook, and his a.s.sociate Mr Anderson, will ever be esteemed a faithful and very valuable description of an interesting island and people.--E.]

A VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE FRIENDLY ISLES,

May, &c. 1777.