88 AUSTEALASIA. 



of the various insular groups, or of uplands and lowlands, may be largely explained 

 by the intermingling of the two streams of ethnical migration. While one great 

 wave gradually advanced along the line of the equator between Africa and America, 

 another stream set in the transverse direction, between the south-east extremity 

 of Asia and the Australian continent. Like the marine currents themselves, 

 these waves of human migration intermingled or intersected each other in their 

 onward movement across the oceanic lands. To the stream which followed the 

 direction of the equator was due the diffusion of a common form of speech, while 

 the transverse current passing from hemisphere to hemisphere across the narrow 

 marine gulfs and inlets brought from the Asiatic mainland the populations differing 

 in appearance and usages, and gradually displaced the different cultures. 



The various dark populations at present scattered over the oceanic islands 

 originally followed the route of the Malay peninsula, possibly also that of lands 

 now vanished or flooded by the shallow waters of the Java Sea. But the same 

 highway was afterwards taken by the jNfalays and other kindred people, by whom 

 the dark races were displaced, absorbed, or driven to remote islands and upland 

 regions of difficult access. The Samangs and Sakais of the Malay peninsula, the 

 Andamanese Islanders, the Negritos of the Philippines, the New Guinea Papuans, 

 and the Australians, although for the most part greatly differing amongst them- 

 selves, are generally regarded as belonging originally to the same group as the 

 black populations of India — Santhals, Gonds, Kohls, Mundahs, and others. But how 

 profoundly the primitive type must have become modified in this wide area during 

 the course of ages, when the emigrants advancing southwards dwelt under diverse 

 climates, exposed to difficulties of diverse nature, compelled to modify their manner 

 of life in a thousand ways, brought into friendly or hostile contact with distinct 

 peoples, and intermingling in different proportions with all these new elements. 



We are separated only by a period of two thousand years from the dawn of 

 historic times in the Eastern Archipelago ; yet this comparatively short j)eriod 

 suffices to show the profound influence exercised on the southern maritime peoples 

 bj^ the civilisation introduced from Asia. At the beginning of this era the Hindus 

 were the teachers of the populations of Java, Bali and Sumatra. Their influence is 

 known to have even reached Borneo, and their far-reaching activity is well attested 

 by numerous monuments, locul names, writing systems, religious legends, and 

 social usages. The Arabs who succeeded the Hindus, both as instructors and 

 promoters of commercial intercourse, also commanded a large measure of success 

 in this insular region, where many millions at present profess the Mohammedan 

 religion, and where even Arabic family names are current from the Comoros to 

 Borneo. 



On the other hand, the action of the Chinese has been less direct and of more 

 limited extent. They keep more aloof from the natives, and have never attempted 

 any religious propaganda like the missionaries from India and Arabia ; yet in 

 several districts the Chinese constitute the substratum of the population. The race 

 has been incessantly renewed by the constant stream of immigration maintained 

 for many generations from the Celestial Empire. 



