CHAPTER XT,. 



THE RACES OF MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 



T PEOPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern 

 travels, with a short statement of my views as to the 

 races of man which inhabit the various parts of the 

 Archipelago, their chief physical and mental characteristics, 

 their affinities with each other and with surrounding tribes, 

 their migrations, and their probable origin. 



Two very strongly contrasted races inhabit the Archi- 

 pelago — the Malays, occupying almost exclusively the 

 larger western half of it, and the Papuans, whose -head- 

 quarters are New Guinea and several of the adjacent 

 islands. Between these in locality, are found tribes who 

 are also intermediate in their chief characteristics, and it 

 is sometimes a nice point to determine whether they 

 belong to one or the other race, or have been formed by a 

 mixture of the two. 



The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these 

 two races, as it is the one which is the most civilized, 

 which has come most into contact with Europeans, and 



