considered, that the people
of Otaheite, from their frequent connections with the English,
had learnt it, in some measure, to adapt themselves to our scanty
knowledge of their language, by using not only the most common, but
even corrupted expressions, in conversation with us; whereas, when
they conversed among themselves, and used the several parts necessary
to propriety of speech, they were scarcely at all understood by those
amongst us, who had made the greatest proficiency in their vocabulary.
A catalogue of words was collected at Atooi by Mr Anderson, who
lost no opportunity of making our voyage useful to those who amuse
themselves in tracing the migrations of the various tribes or families
that have peopled the globe, by the most convincing of all arguments,
that drawn from affinity of language.

How shall we account for this nation's having spread itself, in so
many detached islands, so widely disjoined from each other, in every
quarter of the Pacific Ocean! We find it, from New Zealand, in the
south, as far as the Sandwich Islands to the north! And, in another
direction, from Easter Island to the Hebrides! that is, over an extent
of sixty degrees of latitude, or twelve hundred leagues, north and
south! and eighty-three degrees of longitude, or sixteen hundred and
sixty leagues east and west! How much farther, in either direction,
its colonies reach is not known; but what we know already, in
consequence of this and our former voyage, warrants us in pronouncing
it to be, though perhaps not the most numerous, certainly, by far, the
most extensive nation upon the earth.[4]

[Footnote 4: See more about the great extent of the colonies of this
nation in the Introductory Preface.]

Had the Sandwich Islands been discovered at an early period by the
Spaniards, there is little doubt that they would have taken advantage
of so excellent a situation, and have made use of Atooi, or some other
of the islands, as a refreshing place to the ships that sail annually
from Acapulco for Manilla. They lie almost midway between the first
place and Guam, one of the Ladrones, which is at present their only
port in traversing this vast ocean; and it would not have been a
week's sail out of their common route to have touched at them; which
could have been done without running the least hazard of losing the
passage, as they are sufficiently within the verge of the easterly
trade-wind. An acquaintance with the Sandwich Islands would have