30 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. i. 



a portion of the adjacent region, in which they have 

 entirely supplanted the indigenous inhabitants if it ever 

 possessed any ; and to spread much of their language, 

 their domestic animals, and their customs far over the 

 Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not 

 at all, modified the physical or moral characteristics of 

 the people. 



I believe, therefore, that all the peoples of the various 

 islands can be grouped either with • the Malays or the 

 Papuans ; and that these two have no traceable affinity 

 to each other. I believe, further, that all the races east of 

 the line I have drawn have more affinity for each other 

 than they have for any of the races west of that line ; — 

 that, in fact, the Asiatic races include the Malays, and all 

 have a continental origin, while the Pacific races, including 

 all to the east of the former (except perhaps some in the 

 Northern Pacific), are derived, not from any existing con- 

 tinent, but from lands which now exist or have recently 

 existed in the Pacific Ocean. These preliminary obser- 

 vations will enable the reader better to apprehend the 

 importance I attach to the details of physical form or 

 moral character, which I shall give in describing the 

 inhabitants of many of the islands. 



