A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language - Wallace-online.org

—
DISSERTATION.
xi
fetta. Magellan had with him a Sumatran slave, probably a
Malay, but at all events speaking the Malay language. The first
land made by the circumnavigators, after crossing the Pacific, was
one of the Ladrone islands, and here no intercourse could be held
with the natives, for the interpreter was not understood. Such
was also the case at the outskirts of the Philippines ; but they
had no sooner fairly entered this group than he was readily
comprehended ; and henceforth the intercourse of the Spaniards
with the inhabitants was conducted with facility. At Massana,
a small island lying on the coast of Leyte, a boat came to the
admiral's ship ; and, says Pigafetta, " a slave of the captaingeneral,
a native of Sumatra, formerly called Taprobana, spoke
to them, and was understood."* The petty chief of the island
afterwards \dsited Magellan, and was readily communicated
with through the Malay interpreter; "for," adds Pigafetta,
" the kings understand more languages than their subjects,"
an explanation, however, not quite accurate, for it ought to
have been, that the chiefs, being the principal traders, found it
necessary to acquire the language in which foreigners could be
communicated with. At the island of Zebu^ near which
INIagellan lost his life, the Sumatran slave betrayed the
Spaniards and absconded; and henceforth Pigafetta himself
was able to act as interpreter,—a striking proof of his own
diligence, and the facility with which Malay may be acquired.
He did so, not only in Borneo Proper, of which the language is
Malay, but in Palawan, Mindanau and the Moluccas, where it
is
a foreign tongue, for everywhere some persons were found to
understand it.
Although jSIalayan ci\'iHsation, in all probability, sprang up in
the interior parts of Sumatra, as Malay tradition alleges, still, as
Malays
^^^ asscrtcd cradlc of the Malay nation is not above fifty
miles distant from the coasts, and communicates with
a mTritim^
people.
them by frequent rivers, at all times navigable for the
craft employed, the INIalays must be considered as essentially a
maritime people ; and evidence of this will be found impressed
on their language, of which a few examples may be given :
* Primo Viaggio intorno al globo terraqueo. Milano, 1 800.