CHAP. VI.J THE MALAYANS. 99 



Syrians, and Carthaginians, and confirm the rela- 

 tion of the Polynesians in a closer degree to nations 

 whose birth-place is Asia, but from whom they are 

 now separated by black tribes. The native baptism, 

 the laws of the " tapu," the monotheistical cast of 

 religious ideas, all remind us strongly of these Asi- 

 atic nations. 



There is at the present moment a migration 

 going on of the Malayans from their peninsula to- 

 wards New Guinea and Australia the seats of the 

 true Polynesians ; we find among them the most 

 enterprising merchants of the Pacific, who have 

 established forts and settlements on the northern 

 coast of Australia, and of New Guinea and several 

 other islands, gradually extending their dominion 

 over the Austral negroes. This migration has, 

 however, nothing to do with the ancient peopling 

 of the Polynesian islands, from whose inhabitants 

 the Malayans are still separated by the dark race, 

 and it is only on the western and northern coasts 

 of the islands that they are found. It is a modern 

 migration, which might be easily traced by the 

 historian and geographer. 



I doubt whether much more than what I have 

 stated can be gleaned from these native traditions. 

 If a system of mythology existed in the country 

 from which the stock of the New Zealanders is de- 

 rived, it does not appear to have been transplanted 

 with them in its completeness, but to have been re- 

 tained only in fragmentary and confused notions and 



