But whatever resemblance we might discover, in the general manners of the people of Atooi to those of Otaheite, these of course were less striking than the coincidence of language. Indeed, the languages of both places may be said to be almost word for word the same. It is true, that we sometimes remarked particular words to be pronounced exactly as we had found at New Zealand and the Friendly Islands; but though all the four dialects are indisputably the same, these people in general have neither the strong guttural pronunciation of the former, nor a less degree of it, which also distinguishes the latter; and they have not only adopted the soft mode of the Otaheiteans in avoiding harsh sounds, but the whole idiom of their language, using not only the same affixes and suffixes to their words, but the same measure and cadence in their songs, though in a manner somewhat less agreeable. There seems, indeed, at first hearing, some disagreement to the ear of a stranger, but it ought to be considered, that the people of Otaheite, from their frequent connections with the English, had learnt, 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 our pronouncing it to be, though perhaps not the most numerous, certainly, by far, the most extensive nation upon earth.[30]