The annexation of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and the Society Islands to France ; of the Fiji Archipelago to Great Britain; of a great portion of the Solomon Islands to Germany; and the tripartite division of New Guinea and its adjacent Islands between Great Britain, Germany, and Holland, have given a startling prominence to the remote Islands at our Antipodes. We hear sad stories of Native Races, which at the time of Capt. Cook in 1770 were strong and numerous, dwindling away under the socalled European civilization of intoxicating liquors, infectious diseases, and wholesale man-stealing, the entire credit of which last attaches itself to the English Colonies of Queensland and Fiji. Already the languages of Tasmania, Chatham Island, and the Ladrones, have disappeared with the entire races who once used them. Others are rapidly proceeding in the same direction. As in North America, so in Oceania, the Bible-Translations will remain as the monument of a form of speech, which no longer floats on the lips of men. Before it is too late, I throw together a succinct account of the languages now spoken. In the course of the Session I gave a vivâ, voce address on the subject, which appeared to excite interest, and at the Congress of Orientalists held at Vienna last September, I read an address in the German language on our present knowledge of the Languages of Oceania, but gave no detail of names of languages or authorities.