This day we learnt the Indian name of the island, which is OTAHEITE, and by that name I shall hereafter distinguish it: but after great pains taken we found it utterly impossible to teach the Indians to pronounce our names; we had, therefore, new names, consisting of such sounds as they produced in the attempt. They called me Toote; Mr. Hicks, Hete; Molineux they renounced in absolute despair, and called the Master Boba, from his Christian name Robert; Mr. Gore was Toarro; Dr. Solander, Torano; and Mr. Banks, Tapane; Mr. Green, Eteree; Mr. Parkinson, Patini; Mr. Sporing, Polini; Petersgill, Petrodero; and in this manner they had now formed names for almost every man in the ship: in some, however, it was not easy to find any traces of the original, and they were perhaps not mere arbitrary sounds formed upon the occasion, but significant words in their own language. Monkhouse, the Midshipman, who commanded the party that killed the man for stealing the musket, they called Matte; not merely by an attempt to imitate in sound the first syllable of Monkhouse, but because Matte signifies dead; and this probably might be the case with others.

Voyaging Accounts