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number of these words, and to compare them, that 

 all the people from New Holland, eastward to Easter 

 Island, have been derived from the same common 

 root." * 



* We find Mr. Anderson's notions on this subject conformable to 

 those of Mr. Marsden, who has remarked, " that one general 

 language prevailed (however mutilated and changed in the course of 

 time) throughout all this portion of the world, from Madagascar to 

 the most distant discoveries eastward; of which the Malay is 

 a dialect, much corrupted or refined by a mixture of other tongues. 

 This very extensive similarity of language indicates a common 

 origin of the inhabitants ; but the circumstances and progress of 

 their separation are wrapped in the darkest veil of obscurity." 

 History of Sumatra, p. 35. 



See also his very curious paper, read before the Society of An- 

 tiquaries, and published in their Archceologia, vol. vi. p. 155; where 

 his sentiments on this subject are explained more at large, and 

 illustrated by two tables of coresponding words. 



