1825-1854 21 



are not very prosperous." His notes on the natives are of 

 peculiar interest, and he says : " The houses of the Malays are 

 arranged along the shores of the lagoon. The whole place has 

 rather a desolate aspect, for there vrere no gardens to show the 

 signs of care and cultivation. The natives belong to different 

 islands in the East India Archipelago, but all speak the same 

 language : we say the inhabitants of Borneo, Celebes, Java and 

 Sumatra. In colour they resemble the Tahitians, from whom 

 they do not widely differ in features. Some of the women 

 show a ofood deal of the Chinese character. I liked both their 

 general expression and the sound of voices." The most 

 remarkable fact anent Darwin's notes is that he makes no 

 mention of the Zulu people who came from the Cape with the 

 original party. It is likely that they were not numerous, and 

 yet their prepotent influence has been strongly marked on the 

 physical stamp of the islanders of to-day. 



Not only did he not mention the African element, but 

 he also overlooked the Papuan people from New Guinea, 

 and they too have left very visible traces of their woolly- 

 headed characteristics ; probably the Chinese character that 

 he observed among the women was also the result of real 

 Chinese blood — for its influence too is well marked to-day. 

 This is a question of real ethnological interest, for it shows 

 that the parental Negro and Chinese elements were in 1836 

 so inconspicuous that Darwin practically overlooked them ; 

 and yet after 70 years of intermarrying the resulting race 

 may be said to depart from the typical Malay stock in two 

 directions : first, and most conspicuous, is the Negro type ; and 

 second, the type that possesses Chinese characters. Some Cocos- 

 born families possess Negro features to a remarkable degree 

 and the race is a very fine one ; the Chinese type is of 

 a physique not nearly so good — it is held locally in some 

 contempt — and resembles that found all over the seaboards 

 of Malaya where Chinese and Malay intermarry. It may be 

 said as a general rule that in intermarrying the African 

 Negro and the Chinese both s\vamp the physical characters 

 of the pure Malay — and so too does the Papuan, whose frizzy 



