But, whatever may be the public judgment about other matters, it is with real satisfaction, and without claiming any merit but that of attention to my duty, that I can conclude this account with an observation, which facts enable me to make; that our having discovered the possibility of preserving health amongst a numerous ship's company, for such a length of time, in such varieties of climate, and amidst such continued hardships and fatigues, will make this voyage remarkable in the opinion of every benevolent person, when the disputes about a Southern Continent shall have ceased to engage the attention, and to divide the judgment of philosophers.
(Tables of the route of the Resolution and the Adventure, the variation of the compass and meteorological observations during the voyage.)
A VOCABULARY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOCIETY ISLES.
DIRECTIONS FOR THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE VOCABULARY.
As all nations who are acquainted with the method of communicating their ideas by characters, (which represent the sound that conveys the idea,) have some particular method of managing, or pronouncing, the sounds represented by such characters, this forms a very essential article in the constitution of the language of any particular nation, and must, therefore, be understood before we can make any progress in learning, or be able to converse in it. But as this is very complex and tedious to a beginner, by reason of the great variety of powers the characters, or letters, are endued with under different circumstances, it would seem necessary, at least in languages which have never before appeared in writing, to lessen the number of these varieties, by restraining the different sounds, and always representing the same simple ones by the same character; and this is no less necessary in the English than any other language, as this variety of powers is very frequent, and without being taken notice of in the following Vocabulary, might render it entirely unintelligible. As the vowels are the regulations of all sounds, it is these only that need be noticed, and the powers allotted to each of these in the Vocabulary is subjoined.
_A_ in the English language is used to represent two different simple sounds, as in the word Arabia, where the first and last have a different power from the second. In the Vocabulary this letter must always have the power, or be pronounced like the first and last in Arabia. The other power, or sound, of the second _a_, is always represented in the Vocabulary by _a_ and _i_, printed in Italics thus, _ai_.