It is not easy to prove the origin of these peoples but their language might supply some light. Although the languages spoken by the Indians are many and diverse, they resemble one another so closely that it is recognized clearly that they are all dialects of one and the same tongue, as the Spanish, French, and Italian are of the Latin. The prepositions and pronouns are almost the same in all of them, the numerals differ but slightly, many words are common to all, and they have the same structure. This language, which is one single language, with different dialects, is spoken from Madagascar to Philipinas and no one can contradict this. [35] I add that it is spoken in Nueva Guinea and in all the lands of the south, in the Marianas, in the islands of San Duisk, in those of Otayti, [36] and in almost all the islands of the South Sea. In a collection of voyages wherein are found several dictionaries of the terms which the travelers could learn in each one of these islands I have seen with wonder that the pronouns are almost all the same; that in the Tagálogs the numerals resemble those of any other language of these islands, and most of the words are the same and have the same meaning as in the Tagálog language. But the thing which made me believe more in the identity of these languages was my examination of Don Juan Hovel, an Englishman, who spoke the dialect of San Duisk with a servant of his who was a native of those islands. I found that the construction was the same as that of the languages which are spoken in Philipinas. Consequently, I had no reason to doubt that all these languages are dialects of one speech which is the most extensive in the world, and which is spoken through many thousands of leguas from Madagascar to the islands of San Duisk, Otayti, and the island of Pasquas [37] which is not six hundred leguas distant from America; and the fact that the Indians of Philipinas do not understand the peoples of those islands when they pass through their lands does not offer any argument against this supposition, for neither do the Spaniards understand the French, nor in these islands do those of some provinces understand one another.
In the same collection of voyages, I found a dictionary of only five terms which the Spaniards were able to learn in the Patagonian coast. One of those terms was Baláy [38] which signifies "house" in that language; and with that same word do the Pampangos and Visayans designate house. It may be a mere coincidence which does not prove that the languages of various people are identical. But, seeing that in addition to this the names of South America sound like those of Philipinas, I tried to find some dictionary of that land. Not finding one I examined carefully the few words of the language of Chile which Ercilla has in his Araucana, [39] and I found them sufficiently like the Tagálog language. The name "Chile" is not strange to this language where the cormorant is called "cachile." It is also a pronoun which the Malays apply to the sons of kings. "Chilian," which is a village of Chile, is a Tagálog composition, in which, adding an "an," we have a word which signifies "place," and we get "cachilian" which signifies "place where there are cormorants." Mapocho, the site of the city of Santiago, is another Tagálog composition that signifies "place." Thus from pocquiot, a kind of herb, we get mapocquiot, a place where that plant abounds. Apo is the name given to him who governs, and that name is applied by these Indians to him who has any authority in the village. In Chile, words and phrases are reduplicated: as Ytayta, Biobio, Lemolemo, Colocolo, etc. The same is done in the Tagálog and thus we say: Ataata, Bilobilo, Lebomlebom, and Colocolo. The other words are either Tagálog or very similar, and the connection that is found in so few words in these two languages is [too] great to say that it is accident, although it is not sufficient so that we can say that they are dialects of one language.