464 
APPENDIX. 
exist in the languages of the races inhabiting Western Polynesia, 
whose language is said to resemble those of some of the African 
tribes. 
Few things appear more remarkable in connection with this 
language than the length of time during which so large a por¬ 
tion of it has been preserved among small detached communities, 
in regions widely separated, and destitute of any means of inter¬ 
course with each other. Sir George Grey expresses it as his 
opinion that the traditions and mythology of New Zealand have 
existed among the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean 
for a period considerably above two thousand years ; and the lan¬ 
guage in which those traditions are preserved must have had 
an earlier origin. The antiquity of this language is the more 
wonderful when we remember that it is, with the exception of 
that portion which prevails in the Archipelago, an oral language. 
The languages of Polynesia were only spoken languages, and 
the language of Madagascar was, until within the last forty years, 
an unwritten language. The Portuguese, by whom the island was 
discovered, and its other early visitors, found no hieroglyphics, 
picture-writing, or other kind of record among its inhabitants; 
and subsequent intercourse has furnished no evidence of the 
knowledge of letters ever having existed amongst the native 
population. It is true that long before Europeans had passed 
round the Cape of Good Hope, Moors and Arabs had visited 
Madagascar for purposes of commerce, and had settled in small 
numbers on several parts of the coast. These Arabs, and other 
traders, brought with them their own written language, which 
they used in their mercantile transactions with the people. They 
probably attempted also to teach it to some of the natives; but 
it was only the language of the strangers that was written, and 
its use appears to have been confined to the localities in which 
they temporarily resided. No vestiges remain of the oral language 
of these traders, beyond a few terms connected chiefly with divi¬ 
nation, astrology, and other usages of Arabic origin. The intro¬ 
duction of letters early in the present century, their rapidly ex¬ 
tended use among the people, the formation of grammars exhibit¬ 
ing the peculiarity of the several parts of speech, do not seem to 
