Malayan and Poli/nesian Lanjuagcs and Uaces. 199 

 There are many languages essentially distinct from each 

 other, both of the brown-complexioned and negro races, and 

 not one only of each of these two, as generally supposed. 



Except in the case of the Malay in the Archipelago, and 

 the Polynesian in the Pacific, there are no wide-spread lan- 

 guages or dialects. 



As far as our scanty knowledge of the Negro languages 

 will enable us to judge, the only clear distinction between 

 them and those of the brown-complexioned consists m the 

 first containing always more consonants in proportion to 

 vowels, and more harsh combinations of consonants than the 

 latter. 



It is chiefly the Malay and Javanese, the languages of the 

 two most powerful, civilized, and enterprising of the Archi- 

 pelago, which is found in other tongues, from Madagascar to 

 Easter Island, and from Formosa to New Zealand. 



The evidence for this exists in the words themselves, and 

 their being pure and numerous as we are near Sumatra and 

 Java, the^ original countries of the Malay and Javanese 

 nations, and corrupt and unfrequent as we recede from 

 them, until, the barrier becoming insuperable, they disappear 

 altogether. 



The superior civilization of the people of the countries of 

 the Asiatic continent has excluded Malayan from their lan- 

 guage ; a grovelling condition of society has excluded them 

 from those of the tribes of Australia ; and insuperable phy- 

 sical obstacles from those of America. 



Within the Malayan Archipelago the Malay and Java- 

 nese languages have been communicated to others by con- 

 quest, settlement, or colonization, and commerce ; while to 

 Madagascar, and the islands of the Pacific, they have been 

 communicated by the accidents of tempest-driven praus or 

 fleets of praus. 



The insular cliaractcr of the whole region over which a 

 Malayan language has been disseminated, and the periodical 

 winds prevailing within it, which, on a superficial view, ap- 

 pear obstacles, are, in truth, the true causes of the dissemi- 

 nation ; for, had the region in question been a continent, 

 stretching north and south like America, or lain within the 



