f.ANGUAGF.S and hacks. 22.5 
lag'o into flic islands of the Pacific, I must infer, that neither were 
introduced by the means through which the Malayan language was 
communicated to those of the Pacific. 1 conclude, on the same 
ground, that the voyages were fortuitous and precarious, such as i 
have fancied them. Had the plants or seeds of plants, and the ani¬ 
mals, been even on board the storm-driven praus, it is certain they 
must have been devoured by the famishing crews as food. 
Although all the domesticated animals and cultivated plants of the 
Islands of the South Sea, are common to the Malay Islands, and all, 
I believe, indigenous in the latter, I think it, on the whole, more 
probable that they were indigenous also in the former, than that they 
were introduced from any quarter, arid consequently that the cul¬ 
ture of the one, and the domestication of the other, were native arts. 
The hog and dog of the South Sea Islands are very peculiar va¬ 
rieties. The hog is said to resemble the Chinese breed, having a, 
short body, short legs, a belly hanging almost to the ground, and 
erect ears. The dogs have “ a prodigious large head,, remarkably 
little eyes, pricked ears, long hair, and a short bushy tail.” This 
is neither the hog nor dog of the Malayan islands in the wild or do¬ 
mesticated condition. 
The domesticated animals are very unequally distributed over the 
South Sea Islands. The hog, the dog, and common fowl are all 
three found only in the Society and Sandwich groups. New Zeal¬ 
and has the dog only. The Marquesas, the Friendly Islands, and 
Nt w Hebrides, want the dog. Easter Island and New Caledonia 
have only the common fowl. This last alone is general.* 
This irregularity of distribution is remarkable, and would seem 
to point at the precarious nature of the communication through 
which so many of the islands have been peopled by the same nation, 
for had the intercourse been one of ordinary facility, it cannot be 
doubted, but that the emigrants would have carried along with them 
their usual demestieated animals, in the entireness of their number. 
The animals of the islands of the Pacific, now existing only in 
Forster’s Observations on Cook’s Voyage. 
