Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/117

 POLYNESIAN LANi&UAGEiSi ^ 99 ly interposed to communication by land, caused by deep forests, impenetrable morasses, or inaccessible mountains, ought to be steadily kept in remem- brance in a discussion of this nature. The inha- bitants of the Archipelago are, in short, a people naturally of maritime habits, and we expect that their movements shall be directed by this principle* They have not the means of emigrating by land. They have not, like the Tartars, extensive grassy plains to march over with facility, and extensive flocks or herds to feed them in their wanderings. To afford illustrations of the nature of the influ- ence now referred to, I shall endeavour, in a few short sentences, to trace the influence of the Ja- vanese language upon some of the neighbouring tongues ; looking in this view upon Java less as the country of the people who disseminated the lan- guage which, in imitation of Mr Marsden, I have called the Great Polynesian, than as the source of a more modern and less essential influence* The Javanese seem to have made repeated tem* porary conquests of the Sundas, and one of these is matter of such recent history, that Europeans them- selves were witnesses to it. Nearly the same words apply to the conquests made of Madura. Of those of Bali we have no accurate record, but the tradi- tions of both nations are full of them. The effect of these conquests has been every thing short of imposing a new language, or of amalgamating the