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APPENDIX BRIEF REMARKS ON THE MALAGASY LANGUAGE. It will be apparent, from several statements in the preceding pages, that my knowledge of the native language was but limited. I had, however, with the assistance of the Missionaries, previously made myself acquainted with its structure and general principles, for the purpose of tracing its affinities with the languages of Poly nesia; and I had given some attention to the Grammars of Messrs. Baker and Griffiths, as well as to the Dictionaries of Messrs. Freeman and Johns, and to the Scriptures and other books translated into Malagasy. I was also, during my sojourn in the country, constantly amongst the people, occasionally with one or more of the natives who understood English, but generally with those who knew no language besides their own. Under these circumstances my residence in Madagascar was a continued lesson in the language; and notwithstanding the opinion ex pressed by a late amiable and distinguished writer in connection with language, that “ the concerns of barbarians unconnected and remote from all contact with literature or civilisation, and destitute of all historic records, will scarcely be thought to require any great portion of attention from the philosophical inquirer,” I am induced to hope that a brief notice of some of the distinctive features of the Malagasy language, and the family of languages to which it belongs, may not be inappropriately added to the narrative of my visits. In the course of my first interview with the people on shore, I was impressed with the resemblance in colour, and often in c c 3