OF THE MALAYS. ^7 recurrence of these adds greatly to the monotony complained of. The Malay language, as now described, had its origin in the interior kingdom of Menangkabao, on Sumatra; from thence it spread to the Malayan peninsula, and here, in all probability, received the cultivation which reduced it to its present form. From the Malayan peninsula, it spread by coloni- zation to the coasts of Borneo, and back to Suma- tra ; and some straggling adventurers carried the partial use of it to the coasts of Java, Celebes, and the countries farther east. The great defect of this language for composi- tion, its simplicity of structure, is the very quality to which it chiefly owes its currency among fo- reigners. It is the lingua franca of the Archipe- lago, the medium of intercourse between the *na- tives of those countries themselves, as well as be- tween the latter and every description of strangers. It is farther fitted for ready acquirement, by the frequency of liquid and vocalic sounds, and by the absence of consonants of harsh or difficult enun- ciation. In speaking and in writing, it has the same sort of currency, but a greater degree of it, that the Persian language has in Hindustan.* Those
- " The language (Malay) in these parts is no less epidemich
than are the Latine, Arabick, and Sclavonian elsewhere.*' — Herbert's Travels, p. ?6^.
