2 NATIVES OF [PART i. 



which theorists have assigned to him, either from 

 the direction of certain periodical winds, or from 

 their preconceived ideas deduced from the history 

 of the human species. 



There are two great varieties of the human race 

 to which these natives belong : one approaches to 

 the black, or negro, and has therefore been called 

 the race of the Austral negroes ; their colour is 

 dark, their hair sometimes woolly, curly, or matted ; 

 their skulls often show bad proportions, their lan- 

 guage consists of various dialects, or perhaps lan- 

 guages; the state of society with them is disor- 

 ganised, and they hold a low grade in the human 

 family. 



They occupy the following islands : 



Van Diemen's Land, New Holland, New Guinea, 

 Louisiade, New Britain, New Ireland, Salomon 

 Islands, Santa Cruz (or Nitendi), New Hebrides, 

 Loyalty Island, New Caledonia, and the Archi- 

 pelago of Figi. Of some other islands they were 

 the original possessors, but were either extermi- 

 nated, driven into the interior, or blended with the 

 succeeding race. This is the case in the Malayan 

 Peninsula, in the Andaman Islands, Penang Island, 

 and the Philippine Islands. 



If we divide this vast extent of sea and land by 

 the equator, and again by the 164th degree of east 

 longitude, most of the nations belonging to the 

 Austral negroes will be found to live in the south- 

 west division formed by these lines ; the other three 



