The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks/Specimens of language

The Madagascar language has also som[e] words similar to Malay words, as ouron the nose, in Malay Erung Lala, the tongue Lida Tang, the hand Tangan Taan, the ground Tanna.

From this similitude of language Between the inhabitants of the Eastern Indies and the Islands in the South Sea I should have venturd to conjecture much did not Madagascar interfere; and how any Communication can ever have been carried between Madagascar and Java to make the Brown long haird people of the latter speak a language similar to that the Black wooly headed natives of the other is I confess far beyond my comprehension-- unless the Egyptian Learning running in two courses, one through Africa the other through Asia, might introduce the same words, and what is still more probable Numerical terms, into the languages of people who never had any communication with each other. But this point requiring a depth of knowledge in Antiquities I must leave to Antiquarians to discuss.