Animals. 297 



ted results of every one of our monopolies and restrictions. 

 The conditions of the two experiments are totally different. 

 The true " political economy " of a higher, when governing a 

 lower race, has never yet been worked out. The application 

 of our " political economy " to such cases invariably results 

 in the extinction or degradation of the lower race ; whence 

 we may consider it probable that one of the necessary con- 

 ditions of its truth is the approximate mental and social unity 

 of the society in w^hich it is applied. I shall again refer to 

 this subject in my chapter on Ternate, one of the most cele- 

 brated of the old spice-islands. 



The natives of Banda are very much mixed, and it is prob- 

 able that at least three-fourths of the population are mon- 

 grels, in various degrees of Malay, Paj^uan, Arab, Portuguese, 

 and Dutch. The first two form the basis of the larger por- 

 tion, and the dark skins, pronounced features, and more or 

 less frizzly hair of the Papuans preponderates. There seems 

 little doubt that the aborigines of Banda were Papuans, and 

 a portion of them still exists in the Ke Islands, where they 

 emigrated when the Portuguese first took possession of their 

 native island. It is such people as these that are often look- 

 ed upon as transitional forms between two very distinct 

 races, like the Malays and Papuans, whereas they are only 

 examples of intermixture. 



The animal productions of Banda, though very few, are 

 interesting. The islands have perhaps no truly indigenous 

 Mammalia but bats. The deer of the Moluccas and the pig 

 have probably been introduced. A species of Cuscus or 

 Eastern opossum is also found at Banda, and this may be 

 truly indigenous in the sense of not having been introduced 

 by man. Of birds, during my three visits of one or two days 

 each, I collected eight kinds, and the Dutch collectors have 

 added a few others. The most remarkable is a fine and very 

 handsome fruit-pigeon (Carpophaga concinna), which feeds 

 upon the nutmegs, or rather on the mace, and Avhose loud 

 booming note is to be continually heard. This bird is found 

 in the Ke and Matabello Islands, as well as Banda, but not in 

 Ceram or any of the larger islands, which are inhabited by 

 allied but very distinct species. A beautiful small fruit-dove 

 (Ptilonopus diadematus) is also peculiar to Banda. 



