Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/111

 POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 93 spect the easiest intercourse with it, will, in the ratio of these advantages, be found to contain words of the Polynesian. They are abundant in the Malay and other cultivated tongues of the west, decrease as we go eastward, and most where there is most barbarism, until, in the distant islands of the South Sea, a few stragglers only reach the languages of the more civilized tribes, and even these wanderers do not reach the dialects of such abject savages as those of New Holland. Such are the only arguments which have occur- red to me for ascertaining the locality of the nation which has exerted such an influence over the In- dian islands ; an influence which may be compared, within its sphere, to that which the Sanskrit and the people who spoke it exerted over the languages and nations of Hindustan. The Sanskrit lan- guage exists indeed embodied in writing, while the Polynesian language can be traced only as it is scattered over a thousand living dialects. We know from analogy that a people, of whom San- skrit was the tongue, must have existed ; must have made a certain and considerable progress in civilization, and spread their language and im- provements over the continent of India ; but it is from these inferences, drawn from analogical reasoning alone, that we form such conclusions, for we possess not even the most trifling record of such a people ; we know not when they flourish-