178 Mr Ciawfurd on the 



I have compared, with this specimen of the language of 

 the S4mang, the few words given by Colonel Colebroche, in 

 the Asiatic Researches, of the language of the Andaman 

 Islands, and the result is that no two words are alike, and 

 that the latter contains no word of Malayan origin. 



De Dentrecasteaux* has given a list of 103 Avords of the 

 Negro language of Wageou, lying off the north-west end of 

 New Guinea, as already alluded to. To judge by the appear- 

 ance of this list, it seems to embrace all the sounds found in 

 the Malay and Javanese, but it contains, besides, two let- 

 ters, / and ~, which are unknown to these. The 103 words 

 contain eighteen which are also found in Malay and Javanese. 

 Of these ten are numerals, greatly corrupted ; two are syno- 

 nymes, occurring with native terms ; one is Tdlagu, and one 

 Portuguese, both, no doubt, derived from the Malay. 



On comparing the native portion of the language of Wa- 

 geou with that of the Samang, and the few words of the An- 

 daman, no resemblance can be found between them. 



De Dentrecasteaux gives another list of the language of a 

 Negro people who visited the French ships while they lay at 

 Boni hai'bour in Wageou, and whom he describes as having 

 flat noses, very thick lips, and short woolly hair. Every 

 word of this language, which he supposes to be of New 

 Guinea, differs from that of Wageou ; nor does a single word 

 of Malay or Javanese occur in it. 



M. Duperry has given the ten digits of three Negro lan- 

 guages, two of New Guinea, and one that of New Ireland. 

 In the first in order of those of New Guinea, the numbers 5, 

 6, and 10, are Malayan, gi'eatly corrupted. The second, said 

 to be that of the inhabitants of the interior, does not contain 

 even one word that is Malayan. But In the language of New 

 Ireland we find the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, all Ma- 

 layan. 



Forsterf has thirty-three words of the language of Malicolo, 

 one of the New Hebrides, the population of which group 

 appears to be Negro. Cook observes, that the people of Ma- 



* Voyage autour du Monde. Paris, 1S08. 



t Forster's Observations on Cook's Voyage. 1776. 



