OCEANIA. 



709 



be named many pulses, maize, cotton, pepper, 

 coffee, tobacco, the mango, and the pine-apple. 



Animal life is nearly as vigorous and varied as 

 even the vegetable. In the tropical portion of 

 Oceania the greater animals are confined to the 

 greater islands. The elephant, of the same species 

 as the common Asiatic, is known only on the Pen- 

 insula, Sumatra, and a small portion of the north- 

 east part of Borneo. Two species of rhinoceros, 

 distinct from those of Africa and Asia, are con- 

 fined to the Malayan peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo 

 and Java ; and the two first named afford the tapir, 

 an animal of the same family, and long supposed to 

 be peculiar to the American continent. The tiger 

 is never found in these countries in any small 

 island, even when that island is in the immediate 

 vicinity of a large one abounding with it. This 

 animal, and many others of the feline tribe, abound 

 in all the large islands to the westward, but seem 

 to disappear as we advance to the eastward. In 

 the forests of the great islands also are to be found 

 the wild ox and buffalo, the originals of those that 

 have been domesticated. Deer are found chiefly 

 in the great islands, and these of many varieties, 

 differing in size from considerably smaller than an 

 ordinary rabbit, up to that of the elk. The hog is 

 nearly universal, and as abundant as it is widely 

 spread. When we get into the Moluccas and ap- 

 proach the shores of New Guinea, we find a re- 

 markable species of this animal, to all appearance 

 equally partaking of the hog and the deer, and 

 justly called by the natives the Babirusa, or hog- 

 deer, of which this is the literal interpretation. 

 The number and variety of the monkey tribe, all, 

 or almost all, differing in species from the same 

 family in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, is pro- 

 digious ; and they are almost as widely disseminated 

 as they are various and numerous. The Ourang- 

 outang, or man of the forest, so called by the na- 

 tives themselves, seems confined to Borneo and 

 Sumatra. Notwithstanding a certain resemblance 

 to the human form, this is one of the dullest and 

 least intelligent of the race. The feathered tribe 

 becomes the more remarkable as we proceed east- 

 ward. Here they are of singular forms, and their 

 plumage is of resplendent beauty. It is here we 

 find the most remarkable of the parrot family, the 

 louris, and the cockatoos, names that are slight 

 corruptions of native terms. Here are to be found 

 the whole family of the birds of paradise, and the 

 magnificent crown-pigeon, nearly equal in size to the 

 American turkey. Here also the kangaroo begins 

 first to present itself. In the narrow and tempe- 

 rate seas of this region it may be expected that 

 fish should abound, and this is found to be the case, 

 particularly where extensive banks exist, as the 

 Straits of Malacca, a kind of Mediterranean sea; 

 the northern coast of Java ; the shallow bays 

 which indent the Celebes, and the group of the 

 Philippines. A few of these fish are not inferior 

 in flavour to the best of the northern seas. Seals 

 do not present themselves till we get beyond the 

 tropics ; and whales are comparatively rare within 

 the equatorial region. The cod, the herring, and 

 the salmon, so familiar to Europeans, are unknown. 

 The abundance of fish, and the facility of taking 

 them, has rendered the fisher, instead of the hunter 

 state, the prevailing condition of most of the rude 

 tribes. 



To the sketch now drawn, the zoology of the 

 South Sea Islands, and especially of Australia, of- 

 fers well known exceptions. Animal life is there 



comparatively scanty in amount, and the few which 

 exist, although singular for their forms, are for the 

 most part mean and low in the scale of beings, as 

 compared to the lower animals of the longer known 

 portions of the globe. 



M. Balbi, who has furnished a table of the popu- 

 lation of Oceania, makes it amount to 20,300,000, 

 being at the rate of 6J to the square mile ; this, 

 he observes, makes it twice as populous as Ame- 

 rica, and nearly as much so as Africa, but only 

 one-fourth part as populous as Asia, and one- 

 tenth part as Europe. We are disposed, how- 

 ever, to consider this estimate as greatly be- 

 yond the mark. The English population of Aus- 

 tralia, and of our settlements in the straits of Ma- 

 lacca, together with that of Java, and of the 

 Spanish portion of the Philippines, are all that 

 have been ascertained by actual enumeration. The 

 population of the British possessions is above 

 150,000; that of Java six millions; and that of the 

 Spanish possessions nearly as M. Balbi has given 

 it, or 2,640,000. This makes in all 8,790,000, or 

 under nine millions. The countries thus stated 

 are by far the most populous ; Java gives a ratio of 

 120 to the square mile; and Luconia, which has a 

 million and a half of inhabitants, gives near 50. 

 These are the only countries that in reality have a 

 considerable population, from whence then are to 

 come the eleven millions and a half, wanting to 

 complete M. Balbi's number? The only other 

 countries of considerable extent which are toler- 

 ably populous are Sumatra and Celebes; as the 

 greater part of these are still covered with forests, 

 if we reckon them as being equal in ratio to one 

 half of that of Luconia, they will give us an ad- 

 dition of 4,625,000, which will raise the whole to 

 13,415,000. Borneo is, with the exception of a 

 patch here and there at the mouth of a navigable 

 river, either in a state of nature, or sprinkled with 

 a population of savages, less numerous than the 

 apes in their own forests. The Malayan Penin- 

 sula, and the great island of Mindanao, are pretty 

 nearly in the same predicament. A few of the 

 smaller islands, as those of the Lubeck group, 

 Amboyna, and Ternate, are tolerably well peopled. 

 If we give, in short, a million and a half to the 

 whole of which we have not attempted a separate 

 estimate, we shall make the total population of 

 this region amount to fifteen millions, which is 

 unquestionably its utmost extent, and there will be 

 a necessity for curtailing M. Balbi's estimate by at 

 least five millions. 



The native inhabitants of Oceania consist of 

 two, indeed most probably of three, distinct races 

 of men. The first and most important of these, 

 both in numbers and civilization, is a yellow or 

 brown complexioned race, with long lank hair, 

 scanty beards, high cheek bones, large mouths, and 

 short noses, with wide nostrils. In their persons 

 they are squat, somewhat robust, and deficient in 

 agility. Their general stature is greatly less than 

 that of Europeans, and also much below that of 

 the Chinese, of most of the Hindoo nations, the 

 Turks of Asia, and the Persians. They are even 

 shorter than the Birmans and Siamese, whom they 

 most resemble. This race constitutes the entire 

 native population of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Cel- 

 ebes, and the greater number of the South Sea 

 Islands, and forms the great mass of the population 

 of the Malayan peninsula, the Philippine islands, 

 the Moluccas, &c. 



The second race are negroes, and Mr Marsden 



