PELAGIAN NEGRO, PAPUAN, AND ALFORIAN RACES. 1013 



feeble; some being of a copper-brown color, others nearly black, others olive, 

 arid others almost white. In fact, if we once admit a strongly marked dif- 

 ference in complexion, features, hair, and general configuration, as establish- 

 ing a claim to original distinctness of origin, we must admit the application 

 of this hypothesis to almost every group of islands in the Pacific, an idea, 

 of which the essential community of language seems to afford a sufficient 

 refutation. Among the inhabitants of Madagascar, too, all of which speak 

 dialects of the same language, some bear a strong resemblance to the Malayan 

 type, whilst others present approaches to that of the Negro. 



858. The Negrito or Pelagian Negro races must be regarded as a group 

 altogether distinct from the preceding; having a marked diversity of lan- 

 guage; and presenting, more decidedly than any of the Malayo-Polyuesians, 

 the characters of the Negro type. They form the predominating population 

 of New Britain, New Ireland, the Louisiade and Solomon Isles, of several of 

 the New Hebrides, and of New Caledonia; and they seem to extend west- 

 wards into the mountainous interior of the Malayan Peninsula, and into the 

 Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. 1 The Tasmanians, or aborigines 

 of Van Diemen's Laud, who are now almost completely exterminated, un- 

 doubtedly belonged to this group. Very little is known of them, except 

 through the reports of the people of Malayo-Polyuesian race inhabiting the 

 same islands; but it appears that, generally speaking, they have a very in- 

 ferior physical development, and lead a savage and degraded life. There is 

 considerable diversity of physical characters among them ; some approxi- 

 mating closely in hair, complexion, and features, to the Guinea Coast 

 Negroes; whilst others are of yellower tint, straight hair, and better general 

 development. The Papuans, who inhabit the northern coast of New Guinea 

 and some adjacent islands, and who are remarkable for their large bushy 

 masses of half-woolly hair, have been supposed to constitute a distinct race; 

 but there is little doubt that they are of hybrid descent, between the Malays 

 and the Pelagian Negroes. To this group we are probably to refer the 

 Alfourous, or Alforian race, which are considered by some to be the earliest 

 inhabitants of the greater part of the Malayan Archipelago, and to have 

 been supplanted by the more powerful people of the preceding races, who 

 have either extirpated them altogether, or have driven them from the coasts 

 into the mountainous and desert parts of the interior. They are yet to be 

 found in the central parts of the Moluccas and Philippines; and they seem 

 to occupy most of the interior and southern portion of New Guinea, where 

 they are termed Endamenes. They are of very dark complexion ; but their 

 hair, though black and thick, is lank. They have a peculiarly repulsive 

 physiognomy ; the nose is flattened, so as to give the nostrils an almost 

 transverse position ; the cheek-bones project ; the eyes are large, the teeth 

 prominent, the lips thick, and the mouth wide. The limbs are long, slender, 

 and misshapen. From the close resemblance in physical characters between 

 the Endamenes of New Guinea and the aborigines of New Holland, and 



1 An interesting paper, On the Mincopie Race of the Andaman Isles, by Professor 

 Owen, will be found in the Transactions, of the Ethnological Society for 1863, p. 34. 

 They appear to be amongst the most degraded of the Human species, possessing no 

 notion of a Supreme Being, nor of a future existence, nor any sense of decency or 

 shame; they are of diminutive size, yet the cranium is well formed, of an oval type, 

 with rather receding forehead, and they are skilful in making knives of glass and 

 iron cast up from wrecks. They possess considerable powers of imitation, and are 

 active in running, climbing, and swimming. They are not cannibals. Prof. Owen 

 concludes that they are the aborigines of these islands, but remarks that antecedent 

 generations may have coexisted with the slow and gradual geological changes which 

 have obliterated the place or continent of their primitive origin. 



