A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

cclxxx DISSERTATION.
by the arrival of the strangers, or, in short, to a Malagasi
"revolution/^
The Hovas know neither the name of the people from whom
their ancestors sprang, nor the place these ancestors came
from, nor the time when they arrived in Madagascar. A ray
of light may, however, be thrown on this subject. As the
foreign insular languages mixed with the Malagasi are exclu-
sively Malay and Javanese, the principal emigrants must have
been Malays or Javanese, and consequently must have come from
Sumatra or Java, or both. They must have left these islands
during the south-east monsoon, and, therefore, some time from
April to October. They were not a rude and savage people
when they migrated, or they would not have constructed boats
capable of conveying them to Madagascar; and they were
already acquainted with the culture of rice and the coco-palm,
or they would not have carried them along with them. They
were probably acquainted with the process of making malleable
iron, and of manufacturing textile fabrics. In fine, they must
have been tolerably civilised, or they would not have imposed
any portion of their languages on men as civilised as them-
selves, and far more numerous.
Among the Malayan words in the Malagasi, there are about
half-a-dozen Sanskrit ones which are of common use in the
Malagasi, and in the same senses in which they are used in the
Malayan languages. It can scarcely be doubted but that these
words were introduced along with the Malay and Javanese, and
if this be allowed, it follows that the Malayan migration took
place subsequent to the intercourse of the Hindus with the
Eastern islands, and even after their settlement in Java and
Sumatra. As the migration to Madagascar, then, took place
after the Malayan nations had attained a considerable measure
of civilisation, and subsequent to their intercourse with the
Hindus, it may, after all, not be quite so remote as we fancy
or the civilisation of the Malayan islands, and the intercourse
with the Hindus, which contributed to it, are themselves of
greater antiquity than is commonly believed.
There is one important class of words connected with the
migrations, navigation, and influence of the Malayan nations to
;