1838.] of the Tenasserim Provinces. 857 



latter to that prototype, established by Gmelin under the denomination 

 of Homo-fuscus. 



The Burmese, the third race, and the lords of the land and soil before 

 they were deprived of it, are, comparing their faults and good qualities 

 impartially, an amiable well-behaved race ; naturally indolent, self-con- 

 ceited, and for centuries stationary, but sufficiently civilised to throw off 

 the imputation of being barbarians. 



I adhere to the opinion, (consistent with the Mosaic tradition,) that 

 the human species descended from one pair originally ; that, in the 

 course of ages, certain distant portions of the globe were first peopled, 

 and that from these, as from many distinct nuclei, mankind dispersed 

 excentrically. 



So I think, and history seems to confirm the hypothesis, that from 

 Java, Sumatra, or Borneo, issued the Malayan race ; that the Mon- 

 gols peopling China descended from the high lands of Kobi, and that 

 the Indians, originally bred in the Caucasus and its continuations, 

 extended from west to east : and I continue to say, that these three 

 original races, meeting in their courses from south, north and west, 

 in that part of the globe, now called Indo- China, gave birth to the 

 nations now inhabiting these regions — that therefore the Burmese 

 are a comparatively recent variety of the human species, the result 

 of Malayan, Chinese and Hindu mixture. 



It is here the place to mention that problematical race, which is 

 reported to live in the recesses of the mountain ranges, which, as a 

 spur or a continuation of the great Himdlaya Alps, run towards the 

 peninsula of Malacca. 



I had never the opportunity to ascertain, if this reported race, of the 

 existence of which all the inhabitants in the interior seem to be 

 aware, is one of the numerous varieties of the human species, or be- 

 longs to the Quadrumana. 



If we consider, that close by, on the Andamans, there exists a variety 

 of the human species, which justly may be regarded as the lowest in the 

 scale of intellectual beings ; and when we are told, that in the south of 

 the peninsula at Queda, lives a similar race of beings, belonging to the 

 Ethiopical type, not much superior in intellect to some of the apes, we 

 might be warranted in concluding, that remains of such a race may 

 yet be found in those vast mountainous tracts, which never have been 

 penetrated by Europeans. 



However, the collected, and generally pretty well agreeing, descrip- 

 tions of the natives cover an extent of five degrees : let me indulge 

 in the conjecture, that these pretended human beings are nothing else 

 5 p 2 



