"Polatehera," Says Mr F. "Was So Like Him In Stature And
Bulk, (One Of The Tallest And Stoutest Men In The Island,) That We
Unanimously Looked Upon Her As The Most Extraordinary Woman We Had
Ever Seen.
Her appearance and her conduct were masculine in the
highest degree, and strongly conveyed the idea of superiority and
command.
When the Endeavour bark lay here, she had distinguished
herself by the name of Captain Cook's sister, and one day, being
denied admittance into the fort on Point Venus, had knocked down the
sentry who opposed her, and complained to her adopted brother of the
indignity which had been offered to her." Altogether, however, this
gentleman is the eulogist of the natives and country of Otaheite, and
admits, that he left them with great regret. We shall conclude our
extracts from his description, by the following remarks as to the
language: - "Many of them seeing us desirous of learning their
language, by asking the names of various familiar objects, or
repeating such as we found in the vocabularies of former voyages, took
great pains to teach us, and were much delighted when we could catch
the just pronunciation of a word. For my own part, no language seemed
easier to acquire than this; every harsh and sibilant consonant being
banished from it, and almost every word ending in a vowel. The only
requisite, was a nice ear to distinguish the numerous modifications of
the vowels which must naturally occur in a language confined to few
consonants, and which, once rightly understood, give a great degree of
delicacy to conversation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 275 of 885
Words from 74250 to 74515
of 239428