THE
PREFACE.
THE Peninſula beyond Ganges ſtretching down to Johor, which is the extream Southern Point,and is the moſt Southern did Point of Land in Aſia, is generally called and known by the name of the Malayo Country, and very probably with great Reaſon, it retaining to this day the Malayo Language, as the Mother Tongue, and general Language of the Country. Whereas in all the Iſlands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Maccaſſer, Balee, Cumbava, Sallayer, Bootoon, Booro, Ceram, the Mollucas, and Innumerable other Iſlands, the Malayo Language is received and generally used in all the Trading Ports of thoſe Iſlands, only as the Trading Language, moſt of thoſe lſlands having a peculiar Language of their own: Nay on ſome of the greater Iſlands, (as particularly on Borneo) there is ſeveral different Nations and Languages, with ſeveral of which I have converſed. But I muſt tell you, that the Malayo Language ſpoken in the Iſlands, is ſomewhat different from the true Malayo ſpoken in the Malayo Country, altho not ſo much, but to be eaſily underſtood by each other. The Malayo ſpoken in the Iſlands is called Baſa dagang, that is to ſay, the Merchants or Trading Language, and is not ſo well eſteemed as the true Malayo.
The Inhabitants of thole Iſlands are ſuppofed to proceed originally from the Malayo Country, as being the neareſt Continent, from which the Iſlands proceed in a conſtant Progreſſion, innumerably diſperſed all over thoſe Southern and Eaſtern-Seas to New Guinea, part of Hollandia Nova, and from thence by that wonderful large Iſland of Hollandia Nova, which reaches to Forty four Degrees, South Latitude, not far to the Eaſtward of which Southern Point is other Land, which probably may be part of Terra Auſtralis, and likely to reach near to Terra del fuego the moſt Southern part of America, as yet known to us, and by this way is not improbable America came to be peopled, as ſome have not without great Reaſon conjectured.
As
