“ Besides tlie class1 of words now.alluded to, a very considerable
number of theriikoSt : (familiar and ordinary words of
every language will be found the same throughout the most
cultivated:! languagesb n Such words,; for example^ as sun,
moon, star, sky, stone, earth, fire, water, eye; nose,-foot,
hand, blood, dead.
“ The existence of a class of words of this description will
hardly be explained by any influence short <5f domination
and conquest] or of great admixture,. which implies,-in that
state of society, nearly the same things«
“ On the evidence of language, we may pronounce as to
the'state of civilisation of such a nation, that they had made
Some progress in agriculture; that they understood the use of
iron; had artificers in this metal and in gold, perhaps.made
trinkets of the latter; were clothed with a fabric'made of :the
fibrous bark of plants, which" they wove in the doom | were
ignorant of* the manufacture of cotton cloth, which rwas acquired
in after-times from the continent of India; had tamed
the Cow and buffalo, and applied them to draught: and caFr
riage, and the hog, the domestic fowl, and. the diick, and used
them for food. Such a nation, in all probability, . was in a
state of social advancement beyond the ancient Mexicans;
for they not only understood the use of iron and the; larger
animals, which the Mexicans did not, but the wide spread of
their languagfe across many seas proves that they had made
considerable progress in maritime skill, which thesfMexicans
had not. If they possessed the art of writing and a national
calendar, the probability of which will be afterwards shewn,
their superiority was still more decided.” #
An obvious defect in Mr. Crawfurd’s theory is, that it
affords no explanation nor gives any account of the dispersion
of the Polynesian race over the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
Indeed the supposition that the people who spread one language
over the Indian Archipelago were a nation of superior
attainments in arts and civilisation seems to be refuted by the
state in which we discover this race in the distant groupes of
the Great Southern Ocean* That the tribes who colonised
Tahiti and the Sandwich Isles and Easter Island, and who
* Crawfurd’s liistory of the Indian Archipelago, vol. ii. pp, 82-84, 85.
established . their • language 'in those islands, possessed; previously
to their migration a. knowledge of .the use of metals
and- of, th e (agricultural and mechanical arts, and all the improvements:
in. social life whichCrawford ascribes to his
comparativelywwili-setLcoloniiSts -or conquerors>;;af the Snnda
and -dther Indian Mauds/ds-extremely improbable;-;lit can
hardly be imagined that they.'would have fallen into, the barbarous
state in ' islaardnmf^;the -Pncific at
the.present day. Thisf consideration.affords strong-reason for
believing that'the-higher .refinement which has been discovered
in the, Indian; islands, w&svderived from another
sdniBce, and that those portions both of the .languages; and of
the population of different# islands,' which may be termed
Polynesian from their connection and affinity with what exists
ipsithe remote Oceanici groupes, are tthe -most ancient, and»
paginate? We. have raison' -to believe uthat: in very remote
times, traffic was carried on between.Continental India and the
islands# The- tin-mimes of Malacca?. were early; •celebrated,
and the production* of the islands; was..probably Conveyed to
the-.ports of the Hindoos. % Itwoald otherwise be-(impossible
to . account for the existence of many .Sanskrit names of
metals and other objects which are well known to exist in the
lailgAges of the Archipelago.; It is much. : more probable
that the- islanders were civilised tbroughethis channel than by
a cultivated nation, of whose existence;we find no trace, akin
to the Oceanic Polynesians in language,- but differing entirely
from them as to their:; state of mental devetopemeafei and
civilisation.
If we examine the analogies and the diversities of these
insular languages in the point of view.dh ’which M.. Abel
RSmusat has taught u s . to . compare; dhe idioms:-of different
nations, we shall draw an opporiteAbonctesion' fromV that’ of
Mr; Crawfurd. It might indeed be; concluded! from the phe-,
nomena alone that the original language; of: the .several tribes
was identical, and that the. diversities were superadded, or
were th e ; effect of time and accident.--: The numerals, fonin
these the discrepancies are in point of fact only slight, the
names of family relations, of parts of .the body, of the great
objects of external nature, of the universal elements, of