[Footnote 61:  That the Malayans have not only frequented Madagascar, but have also been the progenitors of some of the present race of inhabitants there, is confirmed to us by the testimony of Monsieur de Pages, who visited that island so late as 1774.  “Ils m’ont paru provenir des diverses races; leur couleur leur cheveux, et leur corps l’indiquent.  Ceux que je n’ai pas cru originaires des anciens naturels du pays, sont petits et trapus; ils ont les cheveux presque unis, et sont olivatres comme les Malayes, avec qui ils ont, en general, une espece de resemblance.”—­Voyages des M. des Pages, tom. ii. p. 90.—­D.]

[Footnote 40:  Archaeolog. vol. vi. p. 155.  See also his History of Sumatra, p. 166, from which the following passage is transcribed:—­ “Besides the Malaye, there are a variety of languages spoken in Sumatra, which, however, have not only a manifest affinity among themselves, but also to that general language which is found to prevail in, and to be indigenous to, all the islands of the eastern seas; from Madagascar to the remotest of Captain Cook’s discoveries, comprehending a wider extent than the Roman or any other tongue has yet boasted.  In different places, it has been more or less mixed and corrupted; but between the most dissimilar branches, an eminent sameness of many radical words is apparent; and in some very distant from each other, in point of situation:  As, for instance, the Philippines and Madagascar, the deviation of the words is scarcely more than is observed in the dialects of neighbouring provinces of the same kingdom.”—­D.]

Our British discoverers have not only thrown a blaze of light on the migrations of the tribe which has so wonderfully spread itself throughout the islands in the eastern ocean, but they have also favoured us with much curious information concerning another of the families of the earth, whose lot has fallen in less hospitable climates.  We speak of the Esquimaux, hitherto only found seated on the coasts of Labradore and Hudson’s Bay, and who differ in several characteristic marks from the inland inhabitants of North America.  That the Greenlanders and they agree in every circumstance of customs, and manners, and language, which are demonstrations of an original identity of nation, had been discovered about twenty years ago.[62] Mr Hearne, in 1771, traced this unhappy race farther back, toward that part of the globe from whence they had originally coasted along in their skin boats, having met with some of them at the mouth of the Copper-mine River, in the latitude of 72 deg., and near five hundred leagues farther west than Pickersgill’s most westerly station in Davis’s Strait.  Their being the same tribe who now actually inhabit the islands and coasts on the west side of North America, opposite Kamtschatka, was a discovery, the completion of which was reserved for Captain Cook.  The reader of the following work will find them at Norton Sound, and at Oonalashka and Prince William’s Sound; that is, near 1500 leagues distant from their stations in Greenland and on the Labradore coast.  And lest similitude of manners should be thought to deceive us, a table exhibiting proofs of affinity of language, which was drawn up by Captain Cook, and is inserted in this work, will remove every doubt from the mind of the most scrupulous enquirer after truth.[63]