MADAGASCAR 232 MADANG
hardy affray -with the natives, who, with pointed bamboos, defeated his fifty Spanish
cavaliers clad in armour.
MADAGASCAR. This great island, reckoned to have an area of 195,000 square
geographical miles, or to be thrice the size of Britain, three thousand miles
distant from the nearest part of the Malayan Archipelago, and not inhabited by a
Malay but a negro race of men, is mentioned in this work only on account of the
singular fact of a considerable number of Malayan words being found in its language.
How came they to be there ? In their grammatical structure and phonetic character,
the Malagasi and the Malayan languages are as widely different as Latin is from
the Teutonic languages, or Sanscrit from the Semitic, while the vast majority of their
words entirely disagree. The theory, therefore, of the languages being cognate
tongues has no foundation. In another work I have endeavoured to account for the
presence of such terms in the following words “ Monsoons, or periodical winds,
blow between them to the south of the equator, namely, the south-east and northwest
monsoons,—the first in the Austral winter, from April to October, which is the
dry and fair season of the year, and the last in the Austral summer, from October to
April, which is the rainy and boisterous season. The south-eastern monsoon, with
which we are chiefly concerned in this inquiry, is, in fact, only a continuation of the
trade wind that blows in the same direction with it, to the south of the equator. A
native vessel, or a fleet of native vessels, sailing from the southern part of Sumatra, or
from Java, must, of course, sail with this monsoon in order to have the least chance
of reaching Madagascar. Undertaking the voyage, however, such vessel or fleet would
have a fair wind all the way, and the sailing distance from the straits of Sunda would
be 3300 miles. Making only at the rate of 100 miles a day, a vessel or a fleet of praus
would reach the eastern shore of Madagascar in 33 days. But it may be asked how
Malays or Javanese, who never quit the waters of their own Archipelago, could come
to contemplate such an enterprise ? I Buppose the adventurers to have been composed
of one of those strong fleets of rovers that, in all known times, have ranged the seas
of the Archipelago, and which do so, from one extremity of it to another, even at the
present day. I suppose them, while either in quest of booty or adventure, to be
driven into the south-eastern monsoon or trade wind by a tempest. Unable to regain
the shores of the Archipelago, they would, from necessity, and after some struggle,
put before the wind, and make for the first land. That land would be Madagascar,
for there is no other. In civilisation, the adventurers would be superior to the
natives ; their numbers would be too few for conquest, but their power, from superior
civilisation, might be adequate to secure a compromise. They would settle, amalgamate
with the inhabitants, and convey some instruction to them along with a portion
of their languages. It is not necessary to limit such an enterprise to the single
adventure of one nation, for in the course of ages there may have occurred several
accidents of the same description. One, however, might have sufficed, for the roving
fleets of the Archipelago, like our own buccaneers, have crews of several nations,
among whom several languages would be spoken, but the most general, the Malay and
Javanese,—those which we find in the Malagasi.”
The proportion of Malayan words found in the Malagasi is but inconsiderable,—
about one-fiftieth of the whole language. These, however, are important, such as, the
numerals, the names for rice, yarn, cocoa-nut, mango, capsicum, iron, to sew, to
weave, sea and land as correlatives, bow and stern, billow, cape or headland, rock,
island" skies, storm, month, year, people. Of such words, some belong exclusively to
the proper Malay, and some to the Javanese, while some are common to these two
languages “ A fleet that had been above a month at sea, going it knew not where, is
not likely to have saved any domesticated animals, even supposing it originally to
have had such, and consequently we find no domestic animal with a Malayan name in
Madagascar. I t is not only possible, however, but highly probable, that from its
stock of provisions, it would save a few grains of rice, a few cocoa-nuts, and a few
capsicums,-—perhaps, even, some yams and mango seeds, and all these, as just
mentioned, bear in the Malagasi, Malayan names, and these only. A Dissertation on
the Affinities of the Malayan languages, prefixed to a Grammar and Dictionary of Malay.
MÂDANG, or HÀNDANG-KAMOLAN. The name of a mythic kingdom of
Java, and the same as Koripan, the locality of which is placed by the Javanese in the
modem district of Grobogan, in the country of the proper Javanese nation. There
are however, no remains to show that such a state ever existed. The foundation of
this state is ascribed to a colony of Hindus, but as both its names are Javanese and not
Sanscrit this is highly improbable. Some of the factitious chronicles of the Javanese
„ o MADURA
MADIOEN ¿áó
assign for its foundation the year of ^25, of i/b u t its name.
603. Such a kingdom, most „ the name of a
MADIOEN, or, in a more correot Qf t^ e Javanese nation. I t is composed
province of Java, m the prop e í con ^ w ^ ^ island _ that which lies between
of one of the seven principal^va y feet high, an active volcano, and that of
the mountain of Lawu to \xe& of this province is computed at 1580 square
Wilis, to the east, 7,957 fee. population was made 307,029, so that it has
miles, and by a census mad|■ ^ 18^ ^ JaP ¿ eSe, except 1059 Chinese, 113 Europeans,
194 inhabitants to the square, mde, nativeB of Celebes. The number of oxen
or their descendants, and 120 A ^ J horses> 18>000. Its teak forests are valu-
and buffalos, m 1843, was 10A > 510 gquare miles, or to cover near one-third of
MADRÉ (an n o u de), or w h i f f i S from south to
Spaniards to the highest poit oni of Madré ig reckoned to commence m
north through the isiandof Lu • ^ northern end of the island, m latllatitude
16°, and to end at Cape E n g , leagues. It is of great breadth, the
tude 18° 37', its l e n g t h being ^tímate y g ^ leagueg) but it seems nowhere to
whole area occupied by it b e i n g nesses are found many of the wandering tribes, both
of “the Negmlnd Mffiayan ïace Its forests abound in fine timber, and contain many
wild animals, as the hog, ox, an a o. . o- lop-ica!
MABUBA. T h . I ,™ . .1
which represents it as the king familiar to the English reader. Towards
corruption of the Sanscrit Mathur , ^ Madura is separated
its western end, b u t embracing only a hav¿ g a deep, navigable,
from Java by a strait ^ f™m divides the two islands, ranging from 30 up
but narrow channel. Elsewher gm , exceeding 300 tons burthen. The
to 50 miles broad, but not navigab ^ and y. 1S computed to have an area of
greatest length of the island l ical formation resembles th a t of Java, or is
soil is ei^S ^ tmile, or^midered so^iywardof facility and generaUy in
hood. The language of Madura is diffeient í rom tbat^oi ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
dialects, at least as different jas Spams g westem, the last being
the eastern portion of the island and the other “ analysis of the
commonly called the Madura word» of it are found
language of "^P ^ o llow in g lingual elements—Madurese, 250 words ; Javanese
to be composed of the loliowing i & Javanese 360 ; Sanscrit, 40, and
170; Malay, 145; common to o f the’Madurese
a ? u . , 85. » « . f f a - a . - s r . i t :
only is original. (dissertation ^ they write their
of ever
having had, like the Sundas, one of their 0W]V . , , oi g g60 • in 1845, 295,748 ;
In 1815 the population "was about
S p e r c e n t.T h e S ty ° < o f p o t i o n gives
Depopulated as these had been by foreign mv^ion and civil^ar, ^
m-e^t majority of whom are