TfTK rfHHOLOOT OP THR INDIAN* ARCHIPELAGO 



EMBRACING ENQUIRIES IPTTO TKK CONTHTOTAI. RttLATlONS OF 



Tin: iwdo-paoifio islander*. 



Fhom the time of CapteiifCook's voyages, an imprsession ha* 

 nrevaded that a certain degree of relationship connects all ihe 

 •Jrewiic tribes from Easier Island to Sumatra, and, reaching 

 erectly across the Indian Ocean, embraces the people of Muda~ 

 fiawar. This has led to many investigations into the extent and 

 cause of so remarkable a circwnfance, W it will suffice at present 

 to advert to Uiose of Marsden, Crawford, Humboldt, Bopp and 

 Hale which have lieeu directed, almost entirely *o philological 

 -ndence, ami to those of Lesson, one of the ablest of die original 

 nqmrers mtu the analogies of a physical kind. The fn>t held the 

 "-union that nit the race* were offshoots from one sh K ? ih- 

 lingnage of which, the Great Polynesian, originating probably in 

 Sumatra, was preserved lo a certain client bv each, while separa- 

 tion had produced all th- great aud numerous ditferences which 

 we now find. Mr Crawfurd, on the other hand, believes tha^ 

 - ach originated in a rude horde speaking a language of its own 

 The riiorj barbarous races retain original and peculiar lanvnafcf 

 while the more improved, sail preserving their ancient tongue 

 as die basts or radical portion of their present one, have incorpo- 

 rated with it a number of foreign elements, all of which ht- 

 nsolves into the great Polynesian language, the latigunge of 

 the adjacent tribes, Sanskrit, Arabic, a few words of other Asiatic 

 limgages, and a still smaller portion of die languages of Europe. 

 The Great Polynesian language he considered to have been thai ot 

 an indigenous civilized nation which, in various degrees, dissemi- 

 nated its language and civilization over the rest of the Archi- 

 pelago, while only a few insulated and corrupted words reached 

 the distant islanders of the Pacific Prom the evidence of 

 language he drew several conclusions respeetng the slate of 

 civilisation of diis nation, ascribing to them some progress in 

 agriculture, the use of iron and gold, loom weaving and th<- 

 possession of die domesticated cow (| buffalo, hog,°fowl and 

 dnck. They had considerable maritime skill, and liad probably 

 attained a calendar and the art of writiug. All these arts he 

 considered to be of native origin. William von Humboldt, the 

 i^rcalest of all general philologists, concluded from an examination 

 and comparison of all the languages of Oceanica for which he had 

 matenajp,^ some ol the most valuable relating to the Javanese and 

 Malay bero*j supplied bv Mr Crawfurd, that diey belonged to om- 

 tamily, havnig essentially the same structure and a large resem- 

 blance in words and roots. His gioas&rial analysis was chiefly 



