﻿J. T. Thomson. — The Whence of the Maori. ' 33 



in Java. It is rather from the accident that the Malays were found in power in 

 the Straits of Malacca at the time of the iirst advent of Europeans to these 

 regions, that their name has been so largely associated in European ideas with 

 predominance in the Indian Archipelago. On mature enquiry it will be 

 found that, with the exception of the small interior state of Menangkabau, 

 the Malays had no real hold on any other territories. Beyond that small area 

 they extended themselves only as traders or holders of river entrances, and 

 this only over part of Sumatra, Borneo, and the peninsula of Malacca. The 

 interiors of these countries were peopled by other tribes, alien to their dialect 

 or language, customs, and religion. Map, Appendix I., will show this more 

 plainly. 



During the era of their power, viz., between the twelfth and sixteenth 

 centuries, no doubt their language or peculiar dialect had spread as the lingua 

 franca of the East, from Malacca to Ternati, but this only affected merchants 

 and dealers, and in no way the local dialects and languages of the indigenous 

 populations. Even in Sumatra, their native island, their language was confined 

 to but a small area, not exceeding one-sixth of the whole. The other tribes 

 or nations, such as the Achinese, Battas, Lampongs, Korinchees, etc., having 

 languages of their own, and in two cases also distinct alphabets. 



The descent of the Malays from the mountains of Sumatra, on some of the 

 islands and coasts of the Indian Archipelago, has therefore been of too modern 

 a date to have specially, or in any degree, affected the languages of Polynesia 

 in general, or of !N"ew Zealand in pai-ticular. All that can be admitted of them 

 is that they, in common with other tribes of the Archipelago, possess the same 

 roots of one archaic language, whose influence not only extended over that 

 archipelago, but was also carried westerly to Madagascar, and easterly over 

 all Polynesia. 



Had the pioneer European navigators first found their way to Celebes, 

 and there encountered the Bugis — a nation of traders, with a different language 

 and literature, a nation more bold and enterprising than the Malays — no 

 doubt they would have held the place in European estimation that the latter 

 now occupy ; and to them alone would the possession of the Archipelago be 

 popularly ascribed, and also, with equal appearance of truth, for their settle- 

 ments are as numerous, as widely diffused, and native history attests that 

 their power was as gi-eat. 



Lyell, in his work on the antiquity of man, remarks that the historical 

 period is quite insignificant in duration when compared with the antiquity of 

 the human race. The earliest reliable date recorded by literature being the 

 first Olympiad, 776 years B.C., and the monumental recoi-ds of Assyria and 

 Egypt are asserted only to go back 1500 b.c. The most modern geological 

 formations are calculated with considerable precision, and extend at least 



