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 captain- general, a native of Sumatra, formerly called Taprobana, spoke to them, and was understood."[1] The petty chief of the island afterwards visited 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 Magellan 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.
Malays essentially a maritime people.Although Malayan civilisation, in all probability, sprang up in the interior parts of Sumatra, as Malay tradition alleges, still, as the asserted cradle of the Malay nation is not above fifty miles distant from the coasts, and communicates with them by frequent rivers, at all times navigable for the craft employed, the Malays 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, 1800.
