BY SYDNEY B. J. SKERTCHLY. 3 



minated, the black aborigines. They constitute the bulk of the 

 Dyaks of Borneo, and the natives of the Philippines ; and it is 

 these Indonesians, and not the true IMalays, who spread over the 

 ocean from Madagascar in the west, to Hawaii in the east, and 

 from Formosa in the north, to New Zealand in the south. The 

 true Polynesian is Indonesian and not Malay. 



About the thirteenth century, a wave from India swept over 

 Malaysia and the major islands of the Archipelago, bringing- 

 with it civilisation, and the Buddhistic and ]'>rahminic faiths ; 

 but it was not permanent, and has only left traces behind, 

 notably in Bali and Lombok. 



This was also the awakening epoch in central Asia ; and 

 the great Kublai Khan dominated China, and Chinese emigrants 

 found their way into the island region of the south, and have 

 left their impress on the Dusuns of North Borneo. 



Finally, in the sixteenth century, the Europeans arrived. 



Leaving China out of the question for the moment, as 

 having been ^longolian from the dawn of history, we find that 

 the rest of our area has been swept by successive wa\es of differ- 

 ent races. The story opens with a wide-spread black population, 

 over which the Indonesians then spread, and like a flood drowned 

 out the aborigines as far east as Moluccas, leaving only a few 

 isolated tribes in the shelter of the interior mountains. This 

 wave sped beyond the Negroid area, and spent itself on the 

 .shores of the eastern and southern Pacific islands. It was 

 followed by another wave, the true Malays, still beating on the 

 shores ; and later by others of Chinese and European origin. 



We must pause to consider the Chinese fiood. It is a double 

 one. The first started in the 13tli century, and has not ceased. 

 It was originally a wave of traders, wbo came to deal with the 

 natives for local produce. It was nuide up of fairly well-to-do 

 people, who travelled as merchants, and often seitled as masters 

 in the new lands ; none of them came as coolies. The second 

 wave followed, and was the result of the European invasion, and 

 consisted of low-class Chinese who Avere brought as servants and 

 plantation hands for the European and better-class Chinese. It 

 is most essential to grasp the fact of this double Chinese wave, 



