Malayan and Polijnes'tan Languages and Haces. 191 



guage, for example, as that of the Lampungs, a people lying 

 between and in the neiglibourhood of the Malays and Java- 

 nese, should consist of nearly one half of the languages of 

 these two nations ; that the language of the remoter, Bugis 

 of Celebes, should consist of only one-fourth of them, and that 

 in the still more remote Tagala and Bisaya of the Philip- 

 pines, the porportion should di-op down to one-thirtieth part. 



I have next to consider how the Malayan words existing 

 in the language of Madagascar may have found their way 

 into it. The inhabitants of Madagascar are Negroes, and in 

 race differ wholly from the Malays and Javanese. The whole 

 number of Malayan words in the Malagasi does not exceed 

 one fifty -seventh part of the language, and they are, as I have 

 shewn, not essential to it. There is, in short, nothing in 

 common between the two races, and nothing in common be- 

 tween the character of their languages. 



The Indian islanders are ignorant of the existence of Ma- 

 dagascar, and the people of Madagascar equally so of the 

 existence of the Indian Islands. A navigation of 3000 miles 

 of open sea lies between them, and a strong trade-wind pre- 

 vails in the greater part of it. A voyage from the Indian 

 Islands to Madagascar is possible, even in the rude state of 

 Malayan navigation ; but return would be wholly impossible. 

 Commerce, conquests, or colonization are, consequently, 

 utterly out of the question as means of conveying any portion 

 of the Malayan language to Madagascar. 



There remains, then, but one way in which this could have 

 taken place — the fortuitous arrival on the shores of Mada- 

 gascar of tempest-driven Malayan praus. The south-east 

 monsoon, which is but a continuation of the south-east trade- 

 wind, prevails from the 10° of south lat. to the equator, its 

 greatest force being felt in the Java Sea, and its influence 

 embi'acing the western half of the Island of Sumatra.* This 

 wind blows from April to October; and an easterly gale dur- 

 ing this period might drive a vessel off the shores of Sumati'a 

 or Java, so as to make it impossible to regain them. In 

 such a situation she would have no resource but putting before 



* pSef the T>iroctory of my greatly-vesi)eoted friend, the Into Cnjit. IIorsTiurgh, 



