250 
REPORT — 1847 . 
table-land of Senegambia and its declivities, have spread their colnnits Sb 
and near; the former through all the maritime region adjacent t^o they* 
rivers, the latter far into the interior of Africa, where they have founo^* 
Felatah States. These nations are almost as superior to the other tnba i 
Iiitertropical Africa, as were the Aztecas and the Peruvians to thevanwt 
races of the New World. From the information received from Tarionstfr 
vellers., I am strongly inclined to believe that these two uadous arenn.- 
more nearly allied than they are generally supposed to be. Thattbeyi’ 
genuine African nations 1 have no doubt; they form au intermediate cliw’ 
people between the degraded races of Guinea and tribes of an -’Asiatic npt 
and the varieties of their physical character fill up all the gradations mtoi ^ 
form and character to the otljcr. 'I'he comparison of these langnag***^ 
subject of great interest, and it is much to be regretted that we yet want r- 
terials that may enable us to become acquainted with the FuUh 
The people, who arc Moslims, are more difficult of access than the **?" 
tribes. _ _ i v, liu 
The languages of the great inland region of S6dan were divided Jf 
Africaiius into two or three great families. Pater information has co ^ 
the veracity of that cnrly traveller, whoso statements would lead 
that the races of people speaking lungu.agcs entirely different from eac 
are much less numerous in the interior of Africa than has been cow 
sujjposetl. 
It now rnniains for me to take a rapid survey of the progress of el uc.. 
as founded on an examiuntion of languages, in Oceaniea and 
Thi* publication of the groat work of Haron William von Humboi 
Kavi speech, forms «ti orn in the history of the languf^es of the 
nations, llcsides much other valuable information, it has afforde . 
portaiit result that the resonildunces known to exist between the 
the islands in the Pacific Ocean termetl Pidyncsiaa, and the tribes o _ 
dian Archipelago, Mulacca and Madagascar, are not, as some 
though^ the effect of casual int<Tcoiirse, but are essential 
rooted in the construction of these languages. For the proofs oi 
tion, and of the ultimate fact in ethnology which rests upon it, ’j?' 
races of people are themselves of one origin, 1 must refer to M-de n 
work. The Papua languages, or those spoken liy the black m 
haired riationa, are for tljc most part as yet unexplored. One 
be miule rcapectirig them is, that the dialccU of Papuan races 
more <u' less of the Polynesian. Whether this arises from the v 
Pupuas of the Polyncdan vocabulary has not been dctemiined, t ^ 
persons incline to this la^t opinion. It is however now ^ ^ rjjC 
some black nations haw Polynesian dialects. The idh-m of tw 
islanders, for example, is properly a dialect of the Polynesian **“^*1*^;^ 
The languagets of America present a wide field of 
which has been explored of late years with great success by i 
writers of the fnited States, and the names of Du Ponceau, 
Gallatin, will ever be reckoned among those of the greatest cou 
ethnological science. It must be observed however that Bamo - - 
von Humboldt and Professor Valer of Kdidgsbcrg first led the « 
posthnnious work of William von Humboldt on the • • 
which M. lluachraanii hiis been many years preparing . -pjiii- 
not yet nindc its appearance. Wo Iiave' reason to expect 
dition lo our present stock of information, since it is understoo 
author liad bestowed on it much labour, and had within his ^ 
sources, collected partly for him by M. Buschmaon in tlie Ne«' 
