THE GREAT OCEAN. 377 



ticxluced their faith there. The vocabulary which 

 he collected there, coincides with the present 

 Malayan. 



The Malayan has become the general language 

 in this part of the world, the language of all trade 

 and intercourse, and is spoken in the houses of 

 the Europeans as far as the Cape of Good Hope. 

 This language is perfectly well known to us ; 

 Marsden's Dictionary and Grammar, London, 

 1812, leave us nothing to wish for in this respect. 

 The Introduction to the Grammar contains the 

 history of the language, and the literature of the 

 sources where it may be learnt. 



The Malayan is a younger branch of the general 

 stock. It contains, with a portion of common 

 roots, a considerable number of Indian words, and 

 Mahometanism has had a later but more super- 

 ficial influence. The Arabian system of writing 

 has superseded the Indian, to which, however, 

 many heathen tribes still adhere. Only uninformed 

 persons have considered as dialects, the four 

 kinds of style in the general Malayan language, 

 which are adapted to the rank and station of 

 those by whom it is spoken ; the language of the 

 court, of the great people, the peasantry, and the 

 market. In the Malay grammar we have a point 

 of comparison for the other less known tongues of 

 this branch. 



We owe to the researches of the English our 

 increasing knowledge of the people and languages 



