228 J. HORNELL ON 



comers, forming the present Polynesian race by crossing with the higher elements 

 of the Papuasians and both races using single outriggers, we can readily understand 

 the peripheral distribution of this type of boat by the hypothesis, accepted fairly 

 generally, that a Mongoloid race, the proto-Malays, spread fan-like from the Indo- 

 Chinese peninsula among the islands inhabited till then by Negritoes, Oceanic Negroes 

 and proto-Polynesians. This Mongoloid stock eventually partly drove out and 

 partly absorbed these races over much of the region now known as Malaysia or 

 Indonesia and for certain reasons developed the double outrigger as their type of 

 small sea-craft. Some of these Malaysians as we may term them, seem to have passed 

 to Madagascar at a very early date, carrying the double outrigger with them ; 

 thence the Arabs appear to have introduced it into East Africa. At the present 

 time the Malays of the northern and eastern coasts of Sumatra and of the Peninsula 

 have discarded the use of outrigger canoes ; this is a comparativel}^ recent alteration 

 in sea-custom for at the latter end of the 17th century (1688) we find Dampier des- 

 cribing the construction of a double outrigger canoe by Achinese sailors. The 

 influence exerted by constant intercourse with Western races upon an enterprising 

 people ready to learn, has wrought this change. 



Negrito, Austrai^ian and Papuasian Affinities. 



The fundamental similarities between the Andamanese type and a certain Aus- 

 tralian form of single outrigger fitted with multiple booms have already been discussed, 

 and the conclusion formulated that the Negritoes are to be credited with the invention 

 of this particular type, subsequently borrowed by certain Australians. As we have 

 Negrito races in the Malay Peninsula (Semangs, etc.) and in the Philippines (Aetas), 

 and as there is distinct evidence of their blood being present in New Guinea as well 

 as in Melanesia, while their descendants are numerous in Africa, it is reasonable to 

 conclude that originally they extended from Africa, throughout India and the Indo- 

 Chinese Peninsula, and to all the islands within easy reach of these coasts — from the 

 Andamans on the West to New Caledonia in the East. Their presence in so many 

 islands connotes some skill in sea-craft, and therefore I do not consider it unreason- 

 able to postulate them as the originators of that form of outrigger canoe found in 

 the A-udamans, and on the east coast of Northern Queensland. So far as is known 

 the Andamanese Negritoes held no communication with strangers prior to our occupa- 

 tion of the islands, and history shows that they have been consistently hostile to all 

 persons visiting their islands. Another peculiarity which has had as much to do 

 with the isolation of these islanders as their hostility to strangers, is the absence of 

 the coconut palm from the archipelago with the exception of the Cocos Islands. As 

 they are considered to be of pure Negrito blood, and so represent probably the most 

 ancient of the distinct human races now surviving, it is difficult to conceive of their 

 adopting a boat-form from any other race, particularly in view of their inveterate 

 aversion to hold any dealings with other races. What they have, must be of their 

 own invention, hence my conclusion that they are the inventors of that particular 

 type of outrigger in use in their islands. 



