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
pronunciation 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