the extent of above two thousand genuine Tonga words.

As it will, no doubt, be satisfactory to the reader to know how the rules and idioms of this heretofore unwritten language have been investigated, it is proper to state that Mr. Mariner carefully selected out of an English dictionary all those words to which he could find appropriate Tonga words, or well adapted phrases; and having assiduously attended to the elementary sounds of the language, and determined upon a plan of orthography, I took upon myself the charge of arranging all the Tonga words alphabetically, by which means my ear and eye became accustomed to them, and several were stored up in my memory. In the mean while Mr. Mariner wrote down several dialogues and popular tales in the Tonga language; and I afterwards exercised myself, with his assistance, and that of the vocabulary, in making literal translations to them, and thus became acquainted, more or less, with the idiom; and, at the same time, I had the opportunity of fur

nishing the Tonga part of the vocabulary with other words. In the next place, having written down sundry examples in English, illustrative of every part of speech, in a variety of forms, and upon a variety of subjects, I gave them to Mr. Mariner to translate into Tonga, according to the strict idiom of that language: by this method we began to perceive what could be translated, and what could not; we discovered where the Tonga language was poor in expression, and where it was more richly endowed; what were the fundamental principles of construction, and what the particular idioms and exceptions to general rules and thus proceeding, step by step, the character and genius of the language were unfolded; and, at length, we arrived at that degree of theoretical knowledge of the structure of it which is now, for the first time, presented to the public.

Every attempt to afford accurate information respecting the manners, customs, and sentiments of any portion of the human species, cannot but be considered, in these enlightened days, at least a landa

ble undertaking; but to bestow much time and pains upon an investigation of the principles of a barbarous language, like the one in question, will, no doubt, in the eyes of many persons, appear more curious than useful; and how far such a view of the subject may be correct, every reader will judge for himself; to me it appears almost as great a deficiency in the history of a nation to overlook the structure of its language, as to neglect any portion of its moral or political character. In taking, for example, the Tonga people, Mr. Mariner could only arrive at a thorough knowledge of their religious, political, and moral character, and the spirit of their religious and political sentiments, through the medium of their language, for all accounts that had been given of them are little better than bare descriptions of outside appearances, every thing else, for want of this same medium, being founded in mere conjecture: so it is easy for a traveller to give an accurate description of the outside of a building, to which he has no admittance, and make some

rude guess as to its interior form; but the object of the present work is chiefly to describe the inside of this structure, that the reader may see the form, dimensions, ornaments, and general merit of its various passages and apartments, to which the Tonga language is the master-key, and which is here offered to all whom accident or design may lead to the same spot, that they may make the same researches in much less time, and with much less hazard and difficulty, than it originally cost the first investigator: and it certainly must be considered some proof of the upright ness of Mr. Mariner's intentions, and his consciousness of the accuracy of his details, that he readily consents to put into the hands of others as easy a method as lies in his power of satisfying themselves as to the truth of what is told them.

There are other points of view, in which, I think, the importance of this subject may be seen: a knowledge of the language helps to throw a considerable light in the path of those who choose to investi

gate the origin of the people, or how far they may be related to other nations of the same immense ocean. In regard to the philologist, it will help his inquiries into the theory of human language generally; and in respect to the metaphysician, he will not be displeased if we offer to his notice the structure of a language which has advanced in its progress up to the present time, among a people who have no conception of any method of noting down their ideas, and yet pride themselves upon the uniform accuracy with which they speak and pronounce their language. There is, moreover, another class of readers, who will by no means regret that this subject has been thus far investigated; I mean those who take a laudable pleasure in looking forward to the civilization and religious instruction of savage nations, to effect which in the most rational manner is certainly to speak to them in their own language*;

* The king and several other chiefs at the Tonga islands appeared quite surprised when Mr. Mariner informed them