54 



islands, and in the Southern States of Nortli America. They 

 occur also in Canada, in Algeria, in a few other places 

 of Africa, in Asia and the South Seas. 



The most prevalent, however, of this group of languages is 

 the Spanish or Portuguese, the distinctions between which 

 do not require to be considered at present. A few places in the 

 Mediterranean bear names of this kind, and a large number 

 along the west coast of Africa, w^here the industry and enter- 

 prise of their navigators were known, before the discovery of 

 America. To the various places in the New Continent, Span- 

 ish names were first given ; and Mexico, in the northern 

 division, was denominated New Spain. In Florida, and some 

 of the West India Islands, in Colombia, and along the western 

 side of the Andes, the names are almost all Spanish ; in the 

 other parts of South America, except in Guiana, they are 

 Portuguese. The same names are found in various parts of 

 the Pacific Ocean, in the Philippine Islands, and a few parts 

 of India. 



The German language has spread very little, except under 

 the kindred form of the Dutch. The colonies from Holland, 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Eastern Archipelago, the 

 West Indies, and North America generally, imparted Dutch 

 names to a vast number of places : but as these have become, 

 in some instances, the property of other nations, the names 

 have not always remained. Thus New Amsterdam has become 

 New York ; and Cape Hoam, which was named from the na- 

 tive village of its discoverer, is Anglicised to Cape Horn, as if 

 named from its shape. 



The language of England, or as it is sometimes called, the 

 AuGLO Saxon tongue, is at this moment more extended than 

 any other in geographical names, and is destined to be more 

 extensively used in practice than any other that has ever 

 existed. Its numerous relations, — to the ancient British and 

 Scandinavian tongues, on the one hand, and to the languages 

 of Latin origin on tlie other, — enable us to understand and to 



