142 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



" Voyage aux Terres Australes ;" but belonging, I think, to a different 

 part of the continent. 



The source of these innovations may readily be divined : but a 

 greater one was found by Flinders at the Murrmj Islands, immediately 

 within the Straits ; " the cocoa-nuts, bananas, and joints of bamboo 

 filled with water, that were brought off by the natives," showing a 

 knowledge of agriculture. While at the same time, no physical 

 difference from the continental Australians, appears to have been 

 remarked. 



There are other reasons for supposing that the Australian race, does 

 actually extend among the little-known islands of the same vicinity. 

 All visiters speak of seeing straight-haired individuals among the 

 natives of the Louisiade. And one of the figjures of the natives of 

 Eastern New Guinea, contained in Belcher's Voyage, seems to cor- 

 respond with the Australian. 



It seems also probable, that as we become better acquainted with 

 this portion of the globe, there will appear less isolation in the cus- 

 toms of .the Australians. We can at present refer to various con- 

 necting circumstances; to the use of a th rowing-stick for the javelin, 

 in Eastern New Guinea, in New Britain, and even in New Caledo- 

 nia ; to the oblong shield or buckler, worn in the Louisiade and 

 around Dampier's Straits ; and also to some corresponding methods 

 of dressing the hair. Some words too, appear to be in common : 

 thus, 'dundu' (the Australian name for the black swan) occurs in 

 New Britain, where, according to Morrell and Jacobs, it is applied to 

 a species of emu or cassowary. 



TASMANNIANS. 



We come now to the controverted point of the physical race of the 

 natives of Van Diemen's Land, situated to tlie southward of the con- 

 tinent. They were spoken of at Sydney, as readily distinguishable 

 from the Australians, by their "woolly hair; peculiar, however, in 

 its texture ;" and at the same time, all idea of affinity with the Negro 

 race, was rejected. 



Mitchell has some observations on the Tasmannians, and concludes 

 in favour of associating them with the continental Australians; and 

 this opinion seems the most probable. Indeed, the portraits of Labil- 



