In the way of Ethnography Madagascar is Asiatic; since its language, as has been known since the time of Reland, is Malay. For this island the evidence of physical character gives two or more races, but the evidence of language only one.

Australia.—In this island we have vocabularies for the following localities: (1.) Murray Island; (2.) Caledon Bay; (3. 4.) Endeavour River; (5.) the Burrah Burrah tribe; (6.) Limestone Creek; (7.) Port Macquarie; (8.) Port Jackson; (9.) Menero Downs; (10.) Jervis Bay; (11.) Hunter's River, vide Threlkeld's Grammar; (12, 13, 14, 15.) Adelaide,—one of these being Teichelmanns and Schürmann's Grammar; (16.) Gulf St. Vincent; (17, 18, 19, 20.) King George's Sound; (22.) Grey's Vocabulary; and a few others.

Van Diemen's Land.—Here, as in Australia, everything is Negrito. In the way of Vocabularies, we have for the North,—(1.) Gaimard's Port Dalrymple Vocabulary, taken down from the mouth of a Van Diemen's Land woman at King George's Sound, with an Englishman as an interpreter.—Voy. Astr. Phil. ii. 9. In the South we have (2.) Cook's Vocabulary, collected in Adventure Bay, S. E. of Van Diemen's Land,—nine words. (3.) Dentrecasteaux's, or La Billardière's Vocabulary. (4.) Allan Cunningham's Vocabulary, collected in 1819 at Entrance Island. (5.) Dr. Lhotsky's Vocabulary, derived from Mr. M'Geary, and representing the language of Hobart's Town.—Journ. Geo. Soc. ix. Besides these, there is a Vocabulary procured by Mr. Robert Brown when in Australia. It nearly represents the same state of language as Dentrecasteaux's Vocabulary.

Besides these remarks, another class of facts should be indicated. In the south of Japan, and in the Marianne Isles, there are statements that Blacks have been:—Père Cantova (in Duperrey and Freycinet), and Adelung (Mithr. i.). From Rienzi also we learn a statement of Lütke's, viz. that in Pounipet, one of the Carolines, there are abundance of Blacks at this moment. These may be indigenous. The hypothetical presence of Negritos may account also for certain peculiarities of the Polynesian of the Tonga Islands. There are traces of them in the Navigator's Archipelago. Crozet (see Pritchard's Phys. Hist.) mentions Negritos in New Zealand, and Cook speaks to a tradition of aboriginal Negritos in Tahiti.

Such are the notices of the Oceanic Negritos in respect to their distribution and the amount of evidence afforded by the specimens of their language. The current opinion is, that over a certain area Blacks of a certain race or races were aborigines. This opinion there is no reason to disturb or to refine upon; the general question is as to the unity or the multiplicity of these races; but the more specific object of the present paper is to ascertain how far that question is decided by the comparison of their languages. The safe way is to ascend in the classification, and to begin with determining the uniformity of speech over limited areas, and within natural boundaries. The most convenient locality to begin with is—

New Guinea.—That four out of the seven New Guinea Vocabularies (supposing them to have been collected independently of each other) represent either dialects of one language, or else languages closely allied, appears on the first comparison. These vocabularies are,—a) Gaimard's Rawak; b) Gaimard's Port Dorey; c) Arago's Papua; and d) Dentrecasteaux's Waigioo. To these Forest's Vocabulary (supposing always that his words have not been incorporated in the vocabularies that came after him) approaches more closely than to the other two.

English.Forest.Dentrecasteaux, &c.
fisheeniené, Malay?
birdmoorsankeenmazaukéhéné.
mansononmansnoné, Malay?
womanbinnbiéné, Malay?
fireforafor.
waterwarouar, Malay?
sandyeaniené.
houseromerouma, Malay?
hooksofydinesarfedinne.
sunrassriass.

Of the two remaining vocabularies the Lobo comes nearer to Forest than the Utanata does. Neither, however, coincide with Forest, as Forest coincides with the first four: nor yet do they coincide so closely with each other.

English.Forest.Lobo.
arrowekaylarakai.
birdmoorsankeenmanoc.
hogbenbooi, Malay?
islandmeossynusu.
sunrassorak.
treekaibusakajuakar.
womanbinnmawinna, Malay?
waterwarmalar.
yesiooro.