THE 
JOURNAL 
OP 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
ON THE MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES 
AND RACES. 
By John Crawford, Esq., F.R.S.* 
Di stinct and unequivocal traces of a Maiayanf language have 
been found from Madagascar to Easter island, and from Formosa to 
New Zealand, over 70 degrees of latitude, and 200 of longitude. 
To account for this remarkable dissemination of a language, sin¬ 
gular for its extent, among a people so rude, it has been imagined 
that all the tribes within the wide bounds referred to constitute, with 
the exception, hoivever, of the Papuas or Negroes, one and the same 
race, and that the many tongues now known to be spoken by them, 
were, originally, one language, broken down, by time and dispersion, 
into many dialects. This is the theory adopted by Mr. Marsdeu, 
Sir Stamford Raffles, and the Baron William Humboldt, as well as 
by many French and German writers, but I believe it to be wholly 
destitute of foundation. 
A sketch of the different groups of nations within the range I have 
alluded to, will shew, that whether their languages be of one stock or 
not, the men themselves belong physically to distinct races. They 
Read before the Ethnological Section of the British Association, June 
1847. 
1* I u s e this word as a common term for all that belongs to the Archipel- 
ago. 
