THE PAPUAN RACE. 



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occasion to remark, that strangers did not readily forget the features 

 of Veindovi. In average stature, the Feejeeans were found to exceed 

 the White race; but they fell below the men of Tonga and Samoa. 



The profile in general appeared to be as vertical, if not more so 

 than in the White race ; but this I find, is not confirmed by the facial 

 angle of the skull ; and it may possibly be accounted for, by some dif- 

 ference in the carriage of the head. The Feejeean skulls brought 

 home by the Expedition, will not readily be mistaken for Malayan; 

 they bear rather the Negro outline ; but they are much compressed, 

 and differ materially from all other skulls that I have seen. 



For characteristic representations of the Papuan race, I would 

 refer to Labillardiere's ' man of Beaupre,' and ' woman of New Cale- 

 donia.' Also, to the portraits taken by Mr. Drayton and Mr. Agate; 

 particularly those of Tanoa, Veindovi, Tui-Mbua, Thokanauto or 

 Philips, Ko-Mbeti, and the girl with stained hair. 



FEEJEEANS. 



a. Tongataboo. 



A dark race having bfeen long known to occupy New Guinea and 

 some of the neighbouring Pacific islands, I did not, at the time of our 

 leaving Sydney, doubt its being the Australian. Indeed, the perso- 

 nal appearance of the four Feejeeans seen at Tongataboo, hardly led 

 to any satisfactory conclusion. One of them, a warrior, particularly 

 attracted my attention ; and after my subsequent experience in regard 

 to the Feejeean character, I can revert more understandingly to the cir- 

 cumstance. He was arrayed on the side of the Christians, yet he had 

 no interest in the quarrel, no sympathies with the surrounding popula- 

 tion : what then was the secret motive, that had prompted him to 

 pursue far away from liis native land his dangerous vocation ? 



He and another warrior, had doubtless arrived in the Tonga canoes; 

 by the same mode of conveyance as the individuals met with by 

 Mariner and Cook; and these instances, form the only ones known 

 of aboriginal wandering on the part of the Feejeeans. 



Two Feejeean women had been brought to Tongataboo in an Eng- 

 lish vessel; and as we were on the point of leaving, they escaped 

 from the shore, in the hope of getting back to their own country ; but 

 Captain Wilkes decided not to receive them on board. 



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