Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0462
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[Page 462]
Manners & Customs of the South Sea Islands
for as they can count 10 of these 20,000 without any new one term
In measures of space they are very poor indeed one fathom & ten fathoms are the only terms I have heard among them by these they convey the size of any thing as a house a boat depth of the sea &c. but when they speak of distances from one place to another they have no way but time of making themselves understood but by the number of days it takes them in their canoes to go the distance
Their Language appeard to me to be very soft & tuneable it abounds much with vowels & was very easily pronounc'd by us when ours was to them absolutely impracticable. I shall instance particularly my own name which I took much pains to teach them & they to Learn after three days fruitless attempts trials I was forc'd to select From their many attempts the word Tabáne the only one I had been able to get from them that had the least similitude to it Again Spanish or Italian words they pronouncd with ease provided they ended with a vowel