II. With respect to the languages of the Blacks of the Malay area, it
may be stated unequivocally, that the dialects of each and every tribe
for which a vocabulary has been examined, are Malay.
A. Such is the case with the Samang, Jooroo, and Jokong vocabularies of
the Peninsula of Malacca.--See Craufurd's Indian Archipelago, Asiatic
Researches, xii. 109, Newbold's British Settlements in Malacca.
B. Such is the case with every vocabulary that has been brought from
Sumatra. The particular tribe sufficiently different from the Malay to
speak a different language has yet to be found.
C. Such is the case with the eight vocabularies furnished by Mr. Brooke
from Borneo; notwithstanding the fact that both the Dyacks and the
Biajuks have been described as tribes wilder and more degraded than
the Malay: in other words, as tribes on the Negro side of the dominant
population.
D. Such is the case with every vocabulary brought from any of the
Molucca, Key, Arru, or Timorian Islands whatsoever; no matter how dark
may be the complexion, or how abnormal the hair, of the natives who
have supplied it.
E. Such is the case with the so-called Arafura vocabularies of Dumont
Durville from Celebes, and of Roorda van Eysinga from Amboyna and Ceram.
F. Such is the case with the languages of the Philippine Islands. In
no part of the great Malay area has the difference between the higher
and lower varieties of the population, been more strongly insisted on,
and more accurately explained than here. Yet the testimony of the early
Spanish Missionaries, as to the fundamental identity of the Black with
the other languages is unanimous; and, to put the matter further beyond
doubt, the few words of the Igorot negroes, near Marivèles, which are
supplied by Lafond Luray, who visited them, are Malay also.
Now, on these grounds, and laying the Andaman Islands out of the
question, it may be safely predicated, that, until we reach either
New Guinea, or Australia, we have no proofs of the existence of any
language fundamentally different from the Malay; whatever may be the
difference in physical appearance of those who speak it.
III. For New Guinea, and the islands Waigioo, and Guebé, I have found
only ten short vocabularies, and these only for the north-western
districts. One of these, the Guebé, of the voyage of the Astrolabe,
although dealt with by Mr. Durville as Papuan, is Malay. The rest,
without any exception, have a sufficient portion of Malay words to
preclude any argument in favour of their belonging to a fresh class
of languages. On the other hand, the commercial intercourse between
the Papuans and Malays precludes any positive statements as to the
existence of a true philological affinity.
From New Guinea, westward and southward, we have for the localities
inhabited by the black tribes with curly hair, the following
vocabularies.