468 Intelligence and M/scellatieous Articles, 



From a careful examination of tiie knowledge respecting the 

 Asiatic Negros which has thus been obtainecl, and more particularly 

 from their characters and history, as detailed in the works of Pro- 

 fessor Blumenbach, Mr. Lawrence, Dr. Pricliard, and M. Virey, and 

 compared with the results of some of M. Julius Klaproth's profound 

 researches into the ancient history of Asia, the present writer has 

 been led to deduce the following view, of the original location and 

 condition in India, and of the eventual dispersion, throughout the 

 regions to the south and south-east of the eastern part of the Asiatic 

 continent, of this singular race of mankind. 



The actual inhabitants of Papua, or New Guinea, may be con- 

 sidered as constituting the type, at the present day, of the Papuan 

 or Asiatic Negro race, properly so called. This race may be defined 

 as the black savages with woolly hair, who are to be met with, from 

 the interior of ?Walacca and Sian), and the islands in the gulf of 

 Bengal, on the north, to Van Ditmen's Land on the south. The 

 facts and statements relating to the Papuan race, which are 

 furnished by the authorities mentioned above, taken collectively, 

 and mutually explained, and corrected or modified by each other, 

 appear to lead to the following conclusions: First, that the Papuan* 

 have not been derived from the population of Africa, even if they 

 should ever prove to be descended, as Negros, from the same ori- 

 ginal stock : Secondly, that (in conjunction perhaps, as will pre- 

 sently be noticed; with the black savages having sfrai<rfit hair, who 

 are at present nearly co-extensive with them) they were the Abort- 

 gines, or at least the most uneient people of whom any traces can 

 now be discovered, of both the great Peninsulas of India, — that is^ 

 of Hindustan and Malacca, and probably also of the seat of the 

 present Birman empire, Siau) and Cochin China. And further, that 

 the bulk of this race migrated, either voluntarily or compulsorily, 

 from the Peninsulas, to the islands of the Indian Archipelago ; 

 whence again they extended, in process of time, through New 

 (juinea (which at present constitutes as it were their Metropolis) to 

 the Australian regions. 



These Negros of Asia appear to have been driven from the Pe- 

 ninsulas as well as the great islands of India, or compelled to inhabit 

 the interior fastnesses only of those countries, partly by the in- 

 creasing ascendancy, and partly by the actual prowess, of sotne of the 

 Caucasian and .Mongolian races, who, whether or not they professed 

 the Hindu or Buddluiic faith, at the time when they subdued India 

 and the " Farther East," were unquestionably, as settled in those 

 couiUries, the lineal though remote ancestors of the present Hindus 

 and worshipers of liuddha. The latter races of people, as is well 

 known, — to a great extent on the continent of India, and almost 

 wholly in the islands, — were afterwards subjugated, and, in some of 

 the islands, a-^nihilated, as a distinct people, by the Mohammedans. 



Such also, it is probable, was the course of things with the black 

 savages having straight hair, who exist nearly co-extensively with 

 the Papuans, and by whom Australia itself is peopled; so that 

 the Aborigines of India would appear to have consisted of these twa 



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