NO. II MELANESIANS AND AUSTRALIANS HRDLICKA 33 



DISCUSSION 



Thus the theories have grown, and the simple reaHties have become 

 more and more obscured. An untraceable mention, an overstatement 

 by an imaginative correspondent or writer, a dark skin, a broad nose, 

 wavy hair, a brief visit to a few tribes, a few measurements and peculi- 

 arities of a skull, or just an inspiration without direct knowledge of 

 America or the Indian, have seemed to scientific theorists justification 

 enough for bringing to the New World the most unlikely human 

 groups, with their women, over thousands of miles of unknown 

 oceans, in spite of the obstacles of thirst, hunger, winds, and currents. 



If these hypotheses are true, they ought to withstand critical exami- 

 nation. Being brought forward by men whose w^ords deserve at- 

 tention, they cannot be w-afted aside by any mere negation, even 

 though this were based on sufficient knowledge. Let us then, with 

 open minds, test the evidence brought in support of these theories. 

 This should be done from the point of view of that branch of sci- 

 ence which must be the chief arbiter in such matters, namely, physi- 

 cal anthropology; though other relevant considerations may be 

 unavoidable. 



When are the different contingents of " blacks " supposed to have 

 reached pre-Columbian America? 



So far as the " Africans " of Darien are concerned, the matter is 

 fairly simple. They are said (in Peter Martyr) to have reached the 

 American shores but recently. But the source of the reports of this 

 group is not known. They are not authenticated by either the authori- 

 ties of the territory nor by Oviedo, the official historian and early 

 settler of the newly discovered land. Moreover, a group of either 

 pirates or slaves from a ship of the time would of necessity have been 

 small and without women. For such a group to penetrate a territory 

 of virile tribes, maintain itself as such for any length of time, 

 and even conduct war with the natives, borders on the impossible. 

 There is no further notice or trace of the group, Velasco's 1901 

 second-hand report applying to conditions nearly four centuries after 

 the multiple introduction of the Negro into America by the Spaniards. 

 Can any scientific weight, under such conditions, continue to be given 

 to this item? It does not seem possible. Moreover, such an occur- 

 rence, even if by some rare chance real, would have had no effect on 

 the American native population. 



There remain, therefore, only the Melanesians and the Australians. 



