Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/290

 be added. In person, intellect, and civilisation, the Hovas are represented to be much superior to the other inhabitants of Madagascar, and it follows that the Malayan blood must, to some extent, have improved the native race.

It remains only to attempt some explanation of the manner in which the Malayan languages, and consequently, the tribes that spoke them, found their way to the far, and to them, unknown, island of Madagascar. I must make the same assumption here that I did in attempting to account for the dissemination of the Malayan languages over the islands of the Pacific. It was assuredly neither commerce, religion, nor con- quest that engaged the Malayan nations in the enterprise, for they have never been known to go beyond their own shores in pursuit of such objects.

Madagascar is about 3000 miles distant from the nearest part of the Malayan Archipelago. Monsoons, or periodical winds, blow between them to the south of the equator; viz., the south- east and north-west 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 mon- soon, with which we are chiefly concerned in this enquiry, 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 con- template such an enterprise. I suppose 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 to the other, even at the present day. I