162 Mr Cravv'furd o;i the 



cast of featui'es, The haii' was frizzled, and dressed into 

 long ringlets. The hair of their body and limbs grew in small 

 tufts, giving the skin a slightly woolly appearance."* 



The Australian continent, with Van Diemen's Land, may 

 be considered as coming within the scope of the present in- 

 quiry. The Australian approaches nearer to some of the 

 oriental negroes than to anyother races of mankind, but is, not- 

 withstanding, widely different. One race occupies the whole 

 continent. Its average stature is 5 feet 6 inches, and the 

 colour " almost black." The hair is black, sometimes lank, 

 and sometimes curled, but never woolly. The beai*d is toler- 

 ably abundant and long. The mouth is large, the lips thick, 

 the teeth good, but frequently there is no distinction in the 

 form of the incisors and canine. " Compared with the other 

 races scattered over the face of the globe, the New Hol- 

 lander appears to stand alone." I 



It remains only to notice the inhabitants of Madagascar, 

 very wantonly imagined by some writers to be of the Ma- 

 layan race, simply because in the Malagasi language thei'e 

 have been found a few words of a Malayan tongue. But the 

 people of Madagascar, whether Hovas or ordinary Malagasis, 

 are merely a vai'iety of the African negro, and, neither in 

 colour, features, form, or stature, do they bear any analogy 

 either to the Malayan race, or to any section of the oriental 

 negro. 



From the enumeration now made, it will appear that there 

 are no fewer than five distinct races of the brown-com- 

 plexioned and lank-haired family ; and, without including 

 Madagascar or Australia, and supposing all those to the north 

 of the equator to be identical, not less than eight of that of 

 the oriental negro. As fai*, then, as physical form is con- 

 cerned, it is certain enough that none of these widely scat- 

 tered races could have sprung from one and the same stock, 

 as has been imagined ; yet, in most of the many tongues 



* Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of the Fly. London, 184:7. 



t Journal of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, by Edward 

 John Eyre. London, 1845. Discoveries in Australia, by J. Scot Stokes, Conr. 

 in the R. R. 1846. 



