280 THE TKOPICAL WORLD. 



themselves behind rocks and large stones ; and there was n 

 pretty brisk interchange of arrows. The sliarp twanging or 

 smacking of the bows, the rattling of bundles of arrows and the 

 hurtling of arrows through the air, and their glancing from the 

 rocks, was heard above the shouts and cries of the combatants. 

 The fierce gestures, quick and active movements, and the 

 animated attitudes of the black and naked warriors, ornamented, 

 as many of them were, with glittering pearl shells or red 

 flowers and yellow leaves hanging from their hair, and the 

 crouching of the women, known by their petticoats, in the rear 

 or skirts of the battle with fresh stores of ammunition, formed 

 for a short time an interesting and exciting spectacle. After a 

 minute or two's skirmishing they all rushed together, hand to 

 hand, and formed a confused mob. The shouting and noise 

 was then redoubled, and there was a short clatter of long poles, 

 sticks, or canoe paddles, which we could see waving above their 

 heads, and we thought some of them were using their arrows 

 as spears or daggers. Still no execution seemed to be done, as 

 we saw none of them down, and in a very short time the poles 

 and paddles were all held erect, the women closed up, and the 

 war of deeds seemed to end in one of words. The fight being 

 done, both parties seemed very glad it was over. Several of 

 the combatants were slightly scarred with arrow marks, but in 

 some cases had evidently had a very narrow escape. It seemed 

 as if they had seen the arrow coming and avoided it by twisting 

 the body as the Australians avoid spears.' 



As to the future prospects of the Papuan race, there can 

 hardly be a doubt that as soon as they come within the range 

 of European emigration or dominion, their speedy extinction 

 must be the result. Their very qualities will seal their doom, 

 for a warlike and energetic people will never quietly submit to 

 the yoke of a foreign master, and must as surely disappear 

 before the white man as the wolf or the tiger. 



With the single and remarkable exception of the Feejee 

 Islanders, who form a kind of intermediate race between the 

 Papuan and Polynesian races, all the archipelagoes and 

 islands of the tropical Pacific, situated on the east and north of 

 the above-mentioned groups, are inhabited by nations dis- 

 tinguished from the Papuan stock by a yellow, olive-coloured, 

 or brown skin ; by smooth, generally black, hair ; by a finer 



