252 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



people being found in the various parts of the 

 Archipelago must be received with much caution, 

 and that most of the wild people so described will 

 be found, like the Dyaks of Borneo, or the wild 

 tribes of the Malacca Peninsula, to be really of 

 Polynesian race. A mingling of the Papuan race 

 with the Australian probably takes place at the 

 present day in the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, 

 but not, perhaps, to so great an extent as might be 

 expected, for I am inclined to think that the Aus- 

 tralians give way and retreat before the islanders. 



The great Malayo-Polynesian race is spread over 

 all the remainder of the space between the eastern 

 coast of Africa, and the west coast of America, in- 

 eluding Madagascar on the one side and Easter 

 Island on the other, and taking in the Malay Penin- 

 sula and the Philippine Islands, and the whole 

 Pacific Ocean. 



I am fully sensible how little there is in the fore- 

 going observations that will be new to the Ethno- 

 logist ; my wish, however, to put some things in a 

 little clearer light, and more especially to render 

 familiar to the general reader what is already 

 known or understood concerning the races of men 

 alluded to, must be my excuse for putting these 

 few notes together and inserting them in the present 

 work. 



