356 WAIGIOU. [chap. XXXVI. 



expect to find in the intervening region some homogeneoiis 

 indigenous race presenting intermediate characters. For 

 example, between the whitest inhabitants of Europe and 

 the black Klings of South India, there are in the inter- 

 vening districts homogeneous races which form a gradual 

 transition from one to the other ; while in America, 

 although there is a perfect transition from the Anglo- 

 Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to the Indian, 

 there is no homogeneous race forming a natural transition 

 from one to the other. In the Malay Archipelago we have 

 an excellent example of two absolutely distinct races, 

 which appear to have approached each other, and inter- 

 mingled in an unoccupied territory at a very recent 

 epoch in the history of man ; and I feel satisfied that no 

 unprejudiced person could study them on the spot without 

 being convinced that this is the true solution of the 

 problem, rather than the almost universally accepted view 

 that they are but modifications of one and the same race. 



The people of Muka live in that abject state of poverty 

 that is almost always found where the sago-tree is abun- 

 dant. Very few of them take the trouble to plant any 

 vegetables or fruit, but live almost entirely on sago and 

 fish, selling a little tripang or tortoiseshell to buy the 

 scanty clothing they require. Almost all of them, how- 

 ever, possess one or more Papuan slaves, on whose labour 

 they live in almost absolute idleness, just going out on 



