710 



OCEANIA. 



very properly adopts for them the name of Negritos, 

 or little negroes. Although negroes, however, 

 they are a totally different race from any of the 

 negroes of Africa. They have thick lips, flat 

 noses, a sooty complexion, and wool-like hair. In 

 their persons they are smaller and slenderer than 

 the yellow race, and upon the whole are among the 

 most diminutive, puny, and ill-favoured of the hu- 

 man species. They present themselves for the first 

 time, (unless we except the inhabitants of the An- 

 daman islands, in the Gulf of Bengal, which seem 

 to be precisely the same people,) in a few scattered 

 families or tribes in the mountains of the Malay 

 peninsula. In Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes, 

 they are not ascertained to exist, although this has 

 been sometimes vaguely asserted to be the case. 

 They appear for the first time, in considerable 

 numbers, in the Philippine group, as wandering 

 savages in the mountains of the principal islands, 

 and constituting the entire population of some of 

 the smaller. In the great island of New Guinea, 

 they appear to constitute the mass of the popula- 

 tion, such as it is, and here for the first time they 

 are seen with some approach to civilization. The 

 same race constitutes the population of almost all 

 the islands from New Guinea to the Feejees in- 

 clusive, extending over fifty degrees of longitude. 

 The yellow complexioned race, then, once more 

 appears, and occupies all the islands to the east, 

 north, and south, except New Holland and Van 

 Dieman's Land, which are peopled by the Ne- 

 gritos. 



The third race has been considered as the result 

 of the admixture of the yellow and negrito races. 

 But for making this assumption, there appears no 

 justifiable ground. In this race, the lips are thick, 

 the hair not woolly or lank, but crisp and curled, 

 and the complexion darker than that of the first, 

 but less intense than in the second race. In 

 strength and stature they seem equal to the first. 

 These present themselves, for the first time, as we 

 proceed eastward, in the island of Ende ; we have 

 them again in Timor and the neighbouring islands, 

 and they constitute the entire inhabitants of Tan- 

 na, New Caledonia, and the Feejee group. 



The existence of these three distinct races of 

 men, inhabiting one and the same country, is a 

 strange and singular phenomenon. It is as if the 

 European, the African, and the Hindoo races were 

 huddled together, and inhabiting the same coun- 

 tries of Europe, the strongest driving the weakest 

 into the mountains, or into remote and inaccessible 

 quarters. 



There is a wide difference in the degrees of 

 civilization attained by the different tribes and na- 

 tions of the vast region which we are describing. 

 Some of them cannot count above four, and others 

 have made a respectable progress in all the useful 

 arts of life. Those who have attained the highest 

 degree of civilization may, not unfavourably, be 

 compared to the continental nations of Asia of the 

 second rank, such as the Birmans and the people 

 of Siam, Lao, and Camboja, whom indeed they 

 greatly resemble in person, manners, and acquire- 

 ments. They have made advances far beyond 

 what had been attained by the most polished na- 

 tions of America before the Spanish discovery. 

 The nations which have acquired this extent of 

 civilization are the Malays, Rejangs, Achinese, 

 Lampongs, and (although occasionally acting the 

 cannibal,). the Battas of Sumatra, the Javanese and 

 Sundas of Java, the Bugis and Macasars of Celebes, 



and the four principal nations of the Philippine 

 islands. Some minor tribes may indeed with safety 

 be added, as the people of Bally, Lombock, Suluk, 

 Ternate, and Mindanao. Among these nations there 

 are four that stand pre-eminent, viz. the Malays, 

 the Javanese, the Bugis, and the inhabitants of 

 Luconia in the Philippines. The agriculture of 

 these is equal to that of any people of continental 

 Asia, the Chinese alone excepted ; but for some 

 share of this they are perhaps considerably in- 

 debted to a favourable soil and climate. From 

 time immemorial they have tamed and used most 

 of the animals which are used by the nations of 

 Asia and Europe, and are fitted for the peculiarity 

 of their climate, such as the horse, the ox, the 

 buffalo, the dog, the hog, the cat, and the ordinary 

 descriptions of domestic poultry. They have long 

 cultivated the cotton plant, and weave and dye 

 cotton fabrics with considerable skill. They have 

 for ages been in possession of the useful and pre- 

 cious metals, and used money in their commerce. 

 They have possessed the art of writing for a great 

 many ages, and this art apparently sprang up among 

 themselves, for there arose among them, as will 

 afterwards be shown, no less than seven distinct 

 alphabets, all of which, to appearance, are oiiginal 

 and unborrowed. They possess a calendar, or di- 

 vide time systematically, so as to regulate with 

 considerable accuracy the common transactions of 

 life. Their political institutions go a great way 

 towards preserving order, and securing life and pro- 

 perty, and their religion, for the most part, does 

 not appear to have been accompanied by any bloody 

 or cruel rites. Wherever the culture of grain is 

 understood, and it is so among all the principal na- 

 tions, civilization has most advanced. Where the 

 people live on the produce of the sago-palm, and 

 bread fruit, they have made less progress, and are 

 found universally ignorant of the use of letters. 

 Where fish is the chief subsistence, they are in a 

 still lower state ; and they are always savage wlien 

 they live upon the casual produce of the forests, 

 honey, wild-roots, and game. 



The minor nations are in a very different state 

 of society. A few of the yellow coloured race 

 apply to some extent to agricultural pursuits ; but 

 the greater number lead a wandering life, living on 

 the casual produce of the forests, rivers, or sea- 

 coasts. Some are cannibals, and most of the tribes 

 live in a state of perpetual warfare with each other; 

 one of their strongest passions being that of hunt- 

 ing for the skulls of their enemies, which they pile 

 up in their dwellings from generation to generation, 

 as honourable trophies and heir-looms. With the 

 exception of a few ot the Negritos of New Guinea, 

 who appear to have made some small progress in 

 the arts, this race will be found more abject, miser- 

 able, and mischievous, than the lowest of the yel- 

 low race. 



What is the origin of these different races ? 

 From whence did they migrate, if they migrated 

 at all, or are they indigenous? Is the language 

 spoken by these different races one and the same 

 primitive tongue, originally spoken by one nation, 

 and split into many dialects by the dispersion of its 

 members? or, is each of the multitude of tongues 

 now spoken, itself the distinct language of an 

 original tribe ? These are questions as curious as 

 they are difficult of solution, and in the usual ab- 

 sence of historical records on such subjects, can 

 only be answered, if, indeed, answered at all, by a 

 critical examination of language. This has been 



