VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 71 



ference of the globe, the same tribe or nation, the 

 Phoenicians, as we may call them, of the Oriental 

 World, should have made their settlements, and 

 founded colonies throughout almost every interme- 

 diate stage of this immense tract, in islands at 

 amazing distances from the mother continent, and 

 ignorant of each others' existence; this is an histo- 

 rical fact, which could be but very imperfectly known 

 before Captain Cook's two first voyages discovered so 

 many new inhabited spots of land lurking in the 

 bosom of the South Pacific Ocean; and it is a fact 

 which does not rest solely on similarity of customs 

 and institutions, but has been established by the most 

 satisfactory of all proofs, that drawn from affinity of 

 language. Mr. Marsden, who seems to have con- 

 sidered this curious subject with much attention, 

 says, that the links of the latitudinal chain remain yet to 

 be traced, * The discovery of the Sandwich islands 

 in this last voyage has added some links to the chain. 

 But Captain Cook had not an opportunity of carry- 

 ing his researches into the more westerly parts of the 

 North Pacific. The reader, therefore, of the follow- 

 ing work will not, perhaps, think that the Editor was 

 idly employed when he subjoined some notes, which 

 contain abundant proof that the inhabitants of the 

 Ladrones, or Marianne islands, and those of the 



* Archaeolog. vol. vi. p. 155. See also his History of Sumatra, 



p. 166. from which the following passage is transcribed. " Besides 



tl the Malaye, there are a variety of languages spoken on Sumatra, 



" which, however, have not only a manifest affinity among them- 



" selves, but also to that general language which is found to pre- 



" vail in, and to be indigenous to, all the islands of the eastern 



" seas; from Madagascar to the remotest of Captain Cook's dis- 



** coveries, comprehending a wider extent than the Roman or any 



" other tongue has yet boasted. In different places, it has been 



" more or less mixed and corrupted; but between the most dis- 



" similar branches, an eminent sameness of many radical w r ords is 



" apparent; and in some very distant from each other, in point of 



" situation : As, for instance, the Philippines and Madagascar, the 



" deviation of the words is scarcely more than is observed in the 



" dialects of neighbouring provinces of the same kingdom/' 



F 4 



