BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 
159 
While among the Philippine Islands he used his opportunity of 
studying the Tagal dialect. He was by no means the first to break 
ground here, Spanish missionaries having long before performed the 
labor of giving it written form. He was able, however, to compare 
the claims of its three rival alphabets, and, what is more important, to 
enrich the royal library at Berlin with a collection of Tagal literature, 
which is regarded as one of his most valuable acquisitions. 
The Hawaii language became familiar to Chamisso within a limited 
range of ideas before any attempt had as yet been made to reduce it to 
writing. About 1835, shortly before his election to the Prussian Ac- 
ademy, (to which, by the way, Alexander von Humboldt proposed 
his name,) he reviewed his records made 16 years before. The lan- 
guage had meanwhile become one of books and newspapers. His 
former knowledge of it appeared, however, neither gone beyond recall 
from lack of use, nor entirely outgrown by later development. He 
therefore thought it not presumptuous to attempt the task, which death 
had shortly before compelled William von Humboldt to relinquish, of 
supplying the language, by the help of its newly made literature with a 
systematic grammar and dictionary. The only known papers read by 
Chamisso before the Academy were reports of his progress in the 
study of the Hawaii language. For this work completeness cannot be 
claimed, nor did he claim the knowledge of the languages of south- 
eastern Asia which was necessary to the perfect understanding of the 
dialects of the Pacific Islands. He made known his investigations 
only in order to put into more capable hands ^^some hewn stones for 
the structure of science.” Death interrupted him before his difficult un- 
dertaking was ended. 
Thus modestly does he state in 1819 his conclusions with regard 
to the unity of human speech, then only beginning to prevail : “We 
suspect that he, who, equipped with proper knowledge, could survey 
and compare all the languages of speaking men, would recognize in 
them only different dialects derived from one source, and would be 
able to trace back roots and forms to a single stock.” 
