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the moft celebrated among them. T h e former' are the riiorer
antient inhabitants, and the latter are certainly .related to the various
tribes o f Malays, who had over-run all the Eaft'India iflands before
the arrival o f the Europeans in thofe feds. Their language Is
likewife in many instances related to that of the Malays:. * The
i-fle o f Formofa or Tai--ovan-has likewife in its interior hilly parts,
a fet o f brown, frizzly haired, broad faced inhabitants-;, but the
Shores, especially thofe to- the North, are occupied by the Chinefe, .
who differ even in- language from the former. Th e iiles o f New
Guinea, New Britain, and Nova Hibernia have certainly black
complexioned inhabitants* whofe manners, cuftoms, habit,, form,
and. charadter, correfpond very much- with the inhabitants o f the
South. Sea iflands belonging to the fecond race in Nova Caledonia,
Tanna, and Mallicollo ; and thefe blacks, in New.-Guinea, ate
probably related to. thofe in the Moluccas and Philippines. Th e
Ladrones, and the new difcovered Caroline Iflands, contain a fet
o f people very much related to our firft race. Their Size, colour,
habit, manners, and cuftoms, feem Strongly to indicate this
affinity; and they are according to the account o f fome writers,.-j*
nearly
* Hernania las Rim Caranel, Relation' de las Idas Maliicas. Navarette Trattados--
Hiftoricos de la Monarchia de China. Gemelli Carreri il giro del mondo. F r. Diego Fergana
, Bocabulario de Pampango en Romance, Manila,. 1732, fol. p . Jnan.tk S tea k y el P .
Pedro tie San I.ucar Vocabulario de la liengua Tagala, Manila 1754. fol.
f Perc Gobien Hiftorie del Ides Marianes,. Paris, 1700, ramo.
28
-nearly related in every refpeft to the Tagales in Lupon or Manilla, c a u s e s
-fo that we may now trace the - line o f migration by a continued
line o f ifles, the greater part o f which are not above 100 leagues
diftant. from each other.
W e likewife find a very remarkable Similarity' between feveral
words o f the fair tribe-of iflanders in the South Sea, and fome of
-the Malays. But it-would be highly -inconclusive from the Similarity
o f a few words, to infer that thefe iflanders were defcended
from the Malays : for as the Malay contains words found in the
Perfian, Malabar, Bräminic, Gingalefe, Javaneie, and Malegafs, *
•this Shoüld likewife imply, that the nations fpeaking the above
-mentioned languages, were the offspring o f the Malays, which
certainly would. be proving too much. I am therefore rather inclined
to fuppofe, that all thefe dialedts preferve feveral words of
a more antient language, which was more univerfal, and was
gradually divided into many languages, now remarkably different.
T h e words therefore o f the language o f the South Sea ifles, which
are Similar to others in the Malay tongue, prove clearly in my
opinion, that the Eaftern South Sea ifles were originally peopled
from the Indian, or Afiatic Northern ifles; and that thofe lying
more to the Weftward, received their firft inhabitants from the
neighbourhood of New Guinea.
O o 2
* -Reland’s Dilîertatlones MifccUaneæ, voU Hi.
We