Malayan and Polynesian Languages and Races. 189 



traoi'dinai"3' facilities for carrying on such expeditions and 

 such commerce, far exceeding even those of the Mediter- 

 ranean ; and the voyages of the Malays and Javanese, con- 

 secjuently, far surpass in length, if not in difficulty, those 

 of the early Greeks and Phoenicians. 



When European nations first visited the Indian Archipe- 

 lago, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, they found the 

 Malays and Javanese conducting the first stage of that com- 

 merce in the clove and nutmeg, by which these valued ai'ticles 

 found their way first into the markets of Continental India, 

 and eventually into those of Arabia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome 

 — that is, making trading voyages which extended from the 

 western to the eastern bounds of the Archipelago. The 

 spices in question M'ere found in the Roman markets in the 

 second century of our ei'a ; and the great probability, there- 

 fore, is, that the Javanese and Malay trade alluded to had, 

 when Europeans first observed it, been going on for at least 

 fourteen centuries. 



The conquests and settlements of the Malays, the chief 

 agents, have extended from the centre oi Sumatra, the pa- 

 rent country of this people, over nearly all the coasts of that 

 island itself, over the whole Malay Peninsula, and over near- 

 ly the whole coast of Borneo ; while small settlements of 

 them may be found as far as Timur, in one direction, and 

 Lucjon, the chief of the Philippines, in another. 



The Malay language has, moreover, been, immemorially, 

 the common medium of communication throughout all the 

 islands. Magellan and his companions, in 1521, carried on 

 an easy intercourse with the inhabitants of some of the small 

 and remote islands of the Philippine group by means of a 

 Malay slave of the Admiral ; for although the native lan- 

 guages were different, the chiefs and persons engaged in 

 commerce were all found to be acquainted with the Malay. 



When again they arrived at Tidor, one of the Spice Islands, 

 they found the ]\Ialay equally current, and the vocabulary in 

 Pigafettas' Narrative, collected there, and consisting of 352 

 words, is, with the exception of 20 local terms, good and cur- 

 rent Malay, such as is spoken at the present day. Yet Tidor 

 and the other Moluccas have, to the present time, pi'eserved 



