252 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



men, and the reputation they possess for valor has caused thu 

 name of Macassar to be regarded as equivalent to warrior. It 

 may be questioned, whether the possession of some parts of 

 Malacca, near Salengore, and Point Romania, at no great dis- 

 tance from remains of the Samang expelled Oriental Negroes, 

 is not also an indication that the Buges tribe came from this 

 portion of the continent. 



The same observation is equally applicable to the Magin- 

 danao, who are also Horafouras, that reached the island when 

 the Philippines were still wholly possessed by Papuas or 

 Bangel-bangel savages. Such, again, are the Bissayans of 

 Lucon ; the races found onwards to Tywan or Formosa, and 

 the Ladrones, who are all possessed of Hindoo tokens of 

 affinity, mixed with evidence of an original consanguinity with 

 the Japanese, particularly to the eastward ; and, according as 

 either preponderates, adopting a Caucasian or a Mongolic 

 ra-tiocination : these mental qualifications are evinced in the 

 readiness many have shown to abandon their ancient idolatry; 

 and the preference they give to the law of Mohammed, rather 

 than to the Christian, is in consequence of the former having 

 had merely teachers to spread the new doctrines, while the latter 

 endeavored to make proselytes by means of Portuguese and 

 Spanish conquerors. Of all these tribes, the Pagans were, or 

 still are, cannibals; the others have certain forms of govern- 

 ments established, and often written laws, in alphabets of their 

 own construction, having scarcely any retrospect to Chinese 

 ideas ; and they were so little in communication with pure 

 Mongols, that it was not until after the arrival of European 

 navigators, that bodies of colonists, from the celestial empire, 

 made their appearance in Luqon and Java. Even in Formosa 

 the population was alien, until refugee emigrants, escaping 

 from Mantchou conquest, reached the island in the seventeenth 

 century, when the Dutch were already in possession of it. 



But notwithstanding this historical fact, Caucasians from 

 Eastern China, Indo-Arabs from Western Asia, and unnamed 



