Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/34

xxvi extent of above two thousand genuine Tonga words.

As it will, no doubt, be satisfactory to the reader to know how the rules and idioms of this heretofore unwritten language have been investigated, it is proper to state that Mr. Mariner carefully selected out of an English dictionary all those words to which he could find appropriate Tonga words, or well adapted phrases; and having myself assiduously attended to the elementary sounds of the language, and determined upon a plan of orthography, I undertook the charge of arranging all the Tonga words alphabetically, by which means my ear and eye became accustomed to them, and several were stored up in my memory. In the mean while Mr. Mariner wrote down several dialogues and popular tales in the Tonga language; and I afterwards exercised myself, with his assistance, and that of the vocabulary, in making literal translations to them, and thus became acquainted, more or less, with the idiom; and, at the same time, I had the opportunity of furnishing the Tonga