218 
OS THE MALAYAN ANT> POLYNESIAN 
The Malay language has, moreover, been, immemorially, the com¬ 
mon medium of communication throughout all the islands. Magellan 
and his companions, in 1521, carried on an easy intercourse with 
the inhabitants of some of the small and remote islands of the Phi¬ 
lippine group, by means of a Malay slave of the Admiral; for al¬ 
though the native languages were different, the chiefs and persons 
engaged in commerce were all found to be acquainted with the Ma¬ 
lay. 
When again they arrived at Tidor, one of the Spice Islands, they 
found the Malay equally current, and the vocabulary in Pigafefctas 5 
Narrative, collected there, and consisting of 352 words, is, with 
the exception of 20 local terms, good and current Malay, such as 
is spoken at the present day, Yet Tidor and the other Moluccas 
have, to the present time, preserved their own peculiar languages, 
wholly different from the Malay.* 
The evidence for the agency of the Javanese, as its influence was 
less, is less palpable, but still sufficient. The Javanese had settled 
in various parts of Sumatra; and at Palembang in that island, their 
language still subsists entire, while through monuments, inscriptions, 
and names of places, it is to be traced in other parts of that island. 
Similar evidence, although less complete, exists of their settle¬ 
ments in Borneo ; and there is historical record of those made by 
them in the Moluccas, as well as of their predatory expeditions and 
commerce to the Malay Peninsula. The Javanese language, how¬ 
ever, less euphonic than the Malay, more prolix and more difficult, 
was never employed as the common medium of communication ; and 
it is not improbable that, even in their own especial settlements, it 
gave way to the Malay. 
In its immediate neighbourhood, the influence of the Javanese 
has naturally been greater on the surrounding languages than that 
of the Malay. Thus, in the Sumanap, one of the two languages of 
Madura, there are, in 1000 words, 170 exclusively Javanese, and 
only 103 exclusively Malay. In the Bali, there are 127 Javanese, 
* Pitma Viaggio interne al globo terraqueo. Milano, 1800. 
