400 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



the American coast, the Galepagos, Juan Fer- 

 nandez, &c. like all the scattered points of land 

 in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, lying far from 

 the continent, were uninhabited : none of the 

 Americans were sea-faring people. 



Zuniga hazards a conjecture that the language 

 of the Araucanians and Patagonians* must coincide, 

 in the main, with the language of the Philippine 

 islands, and without any means of investigation, 

 builds upon this supposition. But this is not the 

 case, t 



We have found no coincidence between the 

 roots of the Araucanian language and those of 

 the original language which has occupied our 

 attention. The numerals, the pronouns, are dif- 

 ferent. We might, perhaps, reduce the conju- 

 gation of the verb, and the declension of the 

 substantive to the root, which always remains 

 unchanged, and to which only particles are an- 

 nexed, but these are always placed after j and 

 in the manner, as well as in the sense of the com- 

 position, there is quite a peculiar spirit, that has 

 nothing in common with the Malay and the Ta- 

 galese. The person is marked in the verb, namely, 



* The Patagonlans, the Puelci, or PueJchi, the Orientals, 

 as the Araucanians call them, belong, as is well known, to the 

 Chilian people, and speak the same language. 



f We have consulted for the Araucanian language, 



Bern. Havestadt, Chilidugu, Monast. 1777. 



Molina Saggio suUa Storia Civile del Chili, Bologna, 1787. 



Mithridates, iii. p. 403: and for the Quichua language, 

 Mithridates, iii. p. 519. 



