Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/293

King George's Sound.]

more so, indeed, than our language was to them. Several English words they pronounced perfectly; whilst of such where an f or an s entered, they could make but little: Finger, was pronounced bing-gah, ship, yip; and of King George, they made Ken Jag-ger. In the difficulty of pronouncing the f and s, they resemble the Port-Jackson natives; and the word used by them in calling to a distance, cau-wah! (come here,) is nearly similar to cow-ee! The word also to express eye, is nearly the same. But in the following table, which contains all the words that, with any certainty, I was able to collect, the most essential differences will be found, both from the Port-Jackson language, and from that of the south end of Van Diemen's Land; and the words collected by Captain Cook at Endeavour River bear no resemblance to any of them.