This latter gentleman, in the ingenious introduction to his valuable grammar of the Malayan language, says, that the large islands of this archipelago have their own peculiar language spoken by the inhabitants of the interior, while the Malayan is generally used in the districts bordering on the coasts, at the mouths and on the banks of navigable rivers, and has thence acquired the appellation of the Lingua Franca of the east. The antiquity of this insular or original language, we are, he says, without the means of ascertaining; but he well supports its stability by the strong proof he adduces of Pigafetta's Vocabulary of the Tidore language, in 1521, differing in no respect from that of the present day. Mr. Marsden seems to conclude that the Malay population of this archipelago has its root in Sumatra, the inhabitants of which island claim immediate descent from some of the companions of Noah, landed there from the ark; and both Mr. Marsden, and Mr. Raffles, the present Governor of Java, assert, that the language spoken in Sumatra differs in no material respect from that spoken in the Malayan peninsula. Upon any occasion where additional light could be thrown upon the subject of these islands, the translator has not scrupled to avail himself of the best authorities for that purpose. The Voyage de Sonnerat aux Indes orientales et a la Chine, edited and enlarged by Sonnini, has been of great service in this respect, as containing the most authentic information which was possible to be procured by a foreigner, aided by every facility which the influence of the court of France over that of Madrid could furnish, and entering upon the undertaking with the express intention of seconding the views of France on the colonial establishments of her European neighbours. The translator hopes that, on the whole, the notes and extracts will not be found unimportant or useless.