ohap. i.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 29 



Contrasts of Races. — Before I had arrived at the conviction 

 that the eastern and western halves of the Archipelago 

 belonged to distinct primary regions of the earth, I had 

 been led to group the natives of the Archipelago under 

 two radically distinct races. In this I differed from most 

 ethnologists who had before written on the subject ; for 

 it had been the almost universal custom to follow William 

 von Humboldt and Pritchard, in classing all the Oceanic 

 races as modifications of one type. Observation soon 

 showed me, however, that Malays and Papuans differed 

 radically in every physical, mental, and moral character ; 

 and more detailed research, continued for eight years, 

 satisfied me that under these two forms, as types, the whole 

 of the peoples of the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia 

 could be classified. On drawing the line which separates 

 these races, it is found to come near to that which divides 

 the zoological regions, but somewhat eastward of it ; a 

 circumstance which appears to me very significant of the 

 same causes having influenced the distribution of mankind 

 that have determined the range of other animal forms. 



The reason why exactly the same line does not limit 

 both is sufficiently intelligible. Man has means of tra- 

 versing the sea which animals do not possess ; and a 

 superior race has power to press out or assimilate an 

 inferior one. The maritime enterprise and higher civili- 

 zation of the Malay races have enabled them to overrun 



