458 THE RACES OF MAN [chap. xl. 



at a subsequent epoch, may have derived some of their 

 inhabitants from the Polynesian area itself. It is un- 

 doubtedly true that there are proofs of extensive migra- 

 tions among the Pacific islands, which have led to 

 community of language from the Sandwich group to New 

 Zealand ; but there are no proofs whatever of recent 

 migration from any surrounding country to Polynesia, 

 since there is no people to be found elsewhere sufficiently 

 resembling the Polynesian race in their chief physical and 

 mental characteristics. 



If the past history of these varied races is obscure and 

 uncertain, the future is no less so. The true Polynesians, 

 inhabiting the farthest isles of the Pacific, are no doubt 

 doomed to an early extinction. But the more numerous 

 Malay race seems well adapted to survive as the cultivator 

 of the soil, even when his country and government have 

 passed into the hands of Europeans. If the tide of colo- 

 nization should be turned to New Giiinea, there can be 

 little doubt of the early extinction of the Papuan race. A 

 warlike and energetic people, who will not submit to 

 national slavery or to domestic servitude, must disappear 

 before the white man as surely as do the wolf and the tiger. 



I have now concluded my task. I have given, in more 

 or less detail, a sketch of my eight years' wanderings among 

 the largest and the most luxuriant islands which adorn 



