466 
APPENDIX. 
mitted, the use of a language of such precision of structure and 
harmony of combination as that of Madagascar exhibits. Internal 
evidence would thus seem to favour the opinion that the Mala¬ 
gasy was derived from a language rich, flexible, and exact, which 
must have belonged to a civilised people, whose intellectual cul¬ 
ture it reflected. Such opinion seems to have been entertained 
by Raffles, Humboldt, Leyden, Crawford, and others, who have 
directed their inquiries to the migrations of the races by whom 
this language is used. Baron Humboldt, brother of the celebrated 
traveller, thus expresses his opinion on this subject: — “ There is 
no doubt that the Malagasy belongs to the family of the Malayan 
languages, and bears the greatest affinity to the languages spoken 
in Java, Sumatra, and the whole Indian Archipelago. But it 
remains entirely enigmatical in what manner and at what period 
this Malayan population has made its way to Madagascar. Of 
Sanscrit words there is a certain number in the Malagasy lan¬ 
guage.”* The period at which this migration took place still 
remains unknown ; but the evidence which tradition affords that 
the vessels of the Polynesian races were formerly much larger 
than they are at present, and the number of well authenticated 
instances of long voyages and vast distances being traversed by 
the natives of Polynesia in recent years, leave little room for 
doubt as to the means by which they have spread themselves over 
the widely extended regions which they now occupy. 
But few verbal coincidences have yet been discovered between 
the Malagasy and the languages of the adjacent coast of Africa. 
We are not, however, to conclude that no resemblances exist, for 
we know but little of the languages of the eastern coast of 
Africa. The few coincidences which have been traced are inte¬ 
resting, and throw light upon important events in the past his¬ 
tory of the Malagasy. There does not seem to be any resem¬ 
blance in verbal form or grammatical structure between the 
Malagasy and the languages spoken on the eastern coast of Africa 
to the southward of Delagoa Bay, excepting in the great regard 
paid to euphony in the Caffre languages as well as in Malagasy; 
* Appendix to Hist, of Madagascar, vol. i. p. 492. 
