264 BIMANA. 



nesian (jroXvs, multitudinous, vrjo-os, an island) to the Oceanic groups ; 

 and of Malayan, to the islands adjacent to the Peninsula of Malacca. 



It would appear that, with certain exceptions, namely, New Guinea, 

 and the islands to the eastward, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon's 

 Isles, New Caledonia, the Fejee Isles, and, perhaps, a few others, the 

 whole of these islands are peopled by a tide of Malayan origin ; 

 certainly not altogether unblended with streams from other sources. 

 Throughout this vast range the Malay language is spoken, in different 

 dialects, and in various degrees of corruption ; and the natives are dis- 

 tinguished by the bronzed, or coppery, complexion of the Malayan race.* 

 In New Zealand, as in other islands, traces of a mixture are to be 

 detected. Crozet divides the New Zealanders into whites, browns, and 

 blacks ; f the last being derived, as he conceives, from New Holland 

 (Alfourous) ; and who, by their mixture with the white race, still the 

 most prevalent, have produced the intermediate brown. Cook, in his 

 first voyage, notices the fact, that people about the Bay of Islands are 

 darker than those of the more southern parts ; and afterward, in his third 

 voyage, he states, that their colour varies from a " pretty deep black" to 

 a "yellowish or olive tint." J Mr. Marsden also remarks, that the people 

 of Shukehangou are much fairer than those on the east coast ; and both 

 Cruise and Crozet observe, that the dark-coloured portion of the population 

 are characterized by a more diminutive stature than the fairer race. Whether 

 the black (or Alfourou ?) portion is of more recent introduction than the 

 lighter, bronzed stock, or whether we behold in it the relics of a people of 

 ancient denizenship, which have been almost extirpated by the arms of a 

 race overwhelming their territories, admits of a question : the latter opinion 

 appears to be the most plausible. 



The Malay dialect, spoken in New Zealand, is nearly the same as 

 that spoken in the Society and the Friendly Islands. The unfortunate 

 Marion, and our great navigator, Captain Cook, noticed the resemblance it 

 bears to the language of Tahiti (Otaheite), and its dissimilarity to that of 

 Solomon's Islands. On Cook's first visit to New Zealand, he found, that 

 a native of Tahiti could make himself perfectly understood by speaking 

 his own tongue ; and Omai, whom Cook brought from Tahiti, on his 

 second visit, easily learned to converse with the New Zealanders, as well 

 as with the people of Tonga ; the difference between the New Zealand 



* Lesson says, that the Oceanic Branch, " which authors place in the Malay race, is only an offset 

 of the great Hindoo family, of which it has all the characters : it is disseminated through the islands, 

 scattered in the immense southern ocean, and peoples, in great part, all the Oceanic lands, from the 

 Sandwich Isles to New Zealand and Easter Island." 



t By the term, white, is to be understood a complexion no darker than that of the swarthy inha- 

 bitants of southern Europe. The inhabitants of Tahiti are very fair, and instances of yellow hair are 

 not unfrequent among them. The fairness of the Sumatrans is also remarkable. 



J A dusky black, tinged with yellow, is the complexion of several New Zealanders, from the 

 neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, who had been lately in London. 



