20 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



after being pitclied and tossed about constantly for 

 more than a hundred days, thus to feel our ship 

 glide along so steadily ; and after scanning the 

 horizon by the hour, day after day, hoping to be 

 able to discern one vessel, and so feel that we had at 

 least one companion on " the wide waste of waters," 

 now to see land on every side, and small boats scat- 

 tered in all directions over the quiet sea. That 

 night we anchored near Babi Island, on a bottom of 

 very soft, sticky clay, largely composed of fragments 

 of shells and coral. A boat came off from the shore, 

 and, as the coxswain could speak a little English, 

 I took my first lesson in Malay, the common lan- 

 guage, or lingua franca^ of the whole archipelago. 

 As it was necessary, at least, that I should be able 

 to talk with these natives if I would live among them, 

 and purchase shells of them, it was my first and most 

 imperative task, on reaching the East, to acquire this 

 language. The Malay spoken at Batavia, and at 

 all the Dutch ports and posts in the islands to the 

 east, differs very much fi'om the high or pure Malay 

 spoken in the Menangkabau country, in the interior 

 of Sumatra, north of Padang, whence the Malays 

 originally came : after passing from island to island, 

 they have spread over all Malaysia, that is, the great 

 archipelago between Asia, Australia, and New Guin- 

 ea. Perhaps of all languages in the world, the low 

 or common Malay is the one most readily acquu*ed. 

 It contains no harsh gutturals or other consonants 

 that are difficult to pronounce. It is soft and musi- 

 cal, and somewhat resembles the Italian in its liquid 

 sounds ; and one who has learned it can never fail 



