distant people which cannot be satisfactorily ascertained,
is that with the negro races of Madagascar.
At first view, therefore, we might be led
to think, that the negroes of the Archipelago had
emigrated from that country, or at least that they
were the same race of men. This supposition,
however, is soon disproved. The different negro
tribes of the Archipelago have different languages
■among themselves ; and all their languages differ
completely from those of Madagascar, the agreer
ment between which, and the languages of the Archipelago,
originates not in the negro languages,
but in those of the men of brown complexion. The
coincidences, in point of arbitrary custom, are to
be traced to the same source, as in the peculiar
practice of the worship of ancestors, and in the singular
custom of changing names at different periods
of life. I have no hesitation in thinking, that the
extraordinary coincidences in language and cus-
stoms, which have been discovered between the
people of the Archipelago and those of Madagascar,
originated with the former. Every rational
argument is in favour of this supposition, and none
against it. It is, in the first place, more probable,
that a numerous and civilized people should impose
their language upon a ruder and less powerful people
than the contrary. With the easterly monsoon,
and the trade-wind, the improved and comirfercial
faces of the Archipelago might find their way to Ma?
dagascar without any insuperable difficulty; but we
may pronounce it impossible, that the savages of
Madagascar, with hardly any vessel better than a
canoe, without a monsoon at all, and in the direct
teeth of. the trade-wina, should find their way to
the Archipelago. The critical examination of
language, which will be supplied in another part of
this work, will enable us to determine, that, as far
as language is concerned, the corresponding words
will be found pure in the Polynesian language, and
corrupt in that of Madagascar, a fact which leads
us at once distinctly to the real source. We shall
in vain refer to any known circumstance in the civil
history of mankind, for an account of this singular
connection. A few interesting hints are supplied to
us, however, from the collation of language. The
words of the languages of the Archipelago, discovered
in that of Madagascar, are not fundamental, but
such as imply advancement in civilization, as, for example,
the numerals. They belong particularly to
no living language in the Archipelago. There are
no Sanskrit words at all in the language of Madagascar.
The language, in short, which is common
to both, is now a dead language, what I have called
in another part of this work the great Polynesian
language. These facts point at a connection
of great antiquity, and lead me distinctly to assert,
that the connection which existed between Madagascar
and the Archipelago, originated in a state
of society and manners different from what now