Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/88

76 Guinea in 1770 — but makes no use of the copious Vocabulary attached to that narrative, of Magindano words and a few Papuan. The former Magindano being the language of the island nearest to the Philippines might be expected to prove as it is almost identical with the dialects given by De Mas as above cited, but his statement of the Papuan seems more different. As Forrest's work is now somewhat scarce, I think perhaps it would be advisable in this place to copy the list of the numerals he has given to be compared with the others already referred to. Magindano. 1 Isa, 2 Daua, 3 Tulu, 4 Apat, 5 Lima, 6 Anom, 7 Petoo, 8 Walu, 9 Seaow, 10 Sanpoolu, 100 Sangalos, 1000 Sanlibu. Papuan. 1 Oser, 2 Serou, 3 Kior, 4 Tiak, 5 Rim, 6 Onim, 7 Tik, 8 War, 9 Siore, 10 Samfoor, 100 Samfoor Ootin, 1000 Samfoor Ootin Samfoor. Forrest however does not say from what part he took these latter words, though there can be no doubt of his having given them correctly as he heard them, and they bear sufficient resemblance to the other lists to prove their relationship.

Such are the views and statements of the Spanish author, whom I have sought to introduce to your notice. It will be seen at once that he writes merely as a traveller, giving an account of what had come under his personal observation, and not as a philosophic maintainer of a particular theory. We may therefore pass by without any lengthened remark his suggestion about the islands having been at some former time a large Continent which in some convulsion of nature had been sunk leaving the mountains as islands in the sea. Such convulsions have been of too frequent occurrence in the history of the world to allow us to dispute the possibi- lity of one having had such effect in the regions referred to. There does not however appear to be any tradition of such events among the people inhabiting the Archipelago, and when their origin can be sufficiently well accounted for by accidental migrations alone, it is quite unnecessary to imagine a catastrophe, which if it had occurred after the country had become peopled, could scarcely have passed out of memory, even if it could be supposed to have left any people there surviving it. But the author himself has given the best indications of the mode in which the islands had become in- habited, when he refers to the fact, as of frequent occurrence, of vessels driven by the winds out of their course to different islands. Beyond his acknowledgement we find numerous in- stances of the some kind in the narratives of different voyagers, Mr. Crawfurd in a valuable paper printed in our Journal Vol. I. p. 369 quotes from Captain Beechey the in-