417. Just as in Italia the Tuscan, Lombard, and Sicilian languages resemble one another, and in España the Castilian, Portuguese, and Valencian--for they all recognize one origin (namely, the Roman), although they are, strictly speaking, quite distinct among themselves--so it happens in the languages of these Philipinas Islands. The principal cultured languages found here at the conquest were six, namely, the Tagálog, the Visayan, the Pampanga, the Cagayan, the Ilocan, and the Pangasinan. It is a fact that all the languages here resemble one another, and he who knows one of them can easily talk the others, for the structure of them all differs but little. We trace them all to one origin, which cannot be other than the Malayan language, according to the comparison which has been made of words, and to the formation and construction of them all. Consequently, although these Indians have regarded their origin as distinct from that of various other nations, in the manner already mentioned, it is evident that the more immediate generations must have been Malays, since their letters and languages alone are found in these islands. 418. The vowels in the characters proper to their language are three in number, although they have the same value as our five in use; for the E and the I form one single letter, as do also the O and the U. The consonants are thirteen in number, but they are never used alone, for the vowel is always used with them. Thus by the use of the C and the M alone they write cama [i.e., "bed"]. In order to pronounce words with other vowels, they make use of certain commas, placed either below or above. Consequently, as all the pronunciation of their writing for the most part makes it necessary for them to supply it at the expense of commas, the difficulty that was experienced was considerable, even in the natives themselves. On that account they have applied themselves so easily and willingly to our letters, in order to write in their own language. 419. Their own method of writing was peculiar, by writing the lines from top to bottom, beginning at the left hand and proceeding to the right. This bespeaks a very great antiquity; for the ancient custom of the Hebrews is to write lines, from the right to the left, as the Chinese do at the present time. But the latter write them from top to bottom, as was done in these islands. Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in the time of the emperor Cæsar Augustus, says that in an island of the torrid zone the people wrote from top to bottom, and employed only a few letters.