A SKETCH OF THE CAItEEK OF THE LATE J. 11. LOGAN. 79 



deserve it best. On this subject, it is now many years ago that I 

 had the pleasure of the company of Sir William Martin, Chief 

 Justice of New Zealand, when I was surprised to learn of the fami- 

 liar knowledge which that learned lawyer had of the minute 

 Anatysis by Logan of the Polynesian languages. 



Logan, in first applying himself to the geology of the Malayan 

 Peninsula, displayed great fortitude and contempt of danger, pro- 

 ceeding as lie did in his excursions in a small sampan into coves and 

 creeks notoriously infested with pirates. But even more so did he 

 display these admirable qualities when penetrating the wilds of 

 Johor, Pah'ang and Kedah. About this period he had removed 

 to Sungei Kallang, near Singapore, while I, bound by 1113' official 

 duty, remained in town. 



1 remember, after he had been on one of those expeditions for 

 several weeks, I was suddenly aroused late in the evening by what 

 appeared to be his spectre. The next moment I saw him tottering, 

 when T rushed forward and grasped 1113' friend, leading him to a 

 chair. 



He had just returned from exploring the Indau. Johor, and Muar, 

 crossing the jungles of the interior, and after many adventures 

 amongst the wild tribes and escapes from flooded rivers, alligators, 

 &c.,he found means to return to Singapore. Weak, weary and sick, 

 he made his way to my house, as'the nearest one, likely to administer 

 to his immediate wants. In this. I need not say there was no laxity. 



] 11 the latter years of our intercourse, I observed him to be ririn- 

 cipally devoted to philology. On this subject, his range of enquiry 

 was as wide as it was persevering. I finally left the Far East in 1855, 

 before he had entered into the midst of his labours in this direction : 

 yet I had had fair opportunity of seeing his close application to the 

 science of language. All languages were equally attacked by him — 

 European, Asian, African. American, and Polynesian — in their glos- 

 sarial, phonetic and idiomatic phases, and particularly the latter. 

 The extent of the learning evidenced by his papers is surprising, 

 even now after the lapse of a quarter of a century, if we consider 

 that they were published before the present facilities were offered 

 or at hand to the student, which are now so abundantly pro- 

 vided by the publication of the vocabularies and grammars of Hodg- 

 son, Koelle, Black, Campbell, and a host of others. 



