RELATIONS BETWEEN THE RACES. 



279 



Caribs. — And thus we have three examples, where one physical race 

 of men has succeeded to the lantTnaoje and institutions of another. 



Turning now to the Pacific and East India islands, we find lan- 

 guages of the Malay class, spoken by three distinct physical races : 

 and all analogy indicating, that this type of language belonged ori- 

 ginally to a single race; the particular source, becomes a fair sub- 

 ject of inquiry. In determining this point, aid may be obtained 

 from the geographical distribution of the three island races; from 

 the well-lino wn composition of the population of the East Indies, 

 where the Malayan is an invading race, intruding and encroaching 

 on the territories of the Negrillo ; and from the fact, that the Negro 

 race, uses the same type of language at the Comoro Islands and 

 Madagascar; while at the last-named island, the physical race of the 

 Vazimba remains undetermined. 



The relations between the three island races, are further illustrated 

 by the state of the diffusion of knowledge in the Pacific ; where al- 

 most every Polynesian art, can be distinctly traced to the Feejee 

 Islands. 



Agriculture and civilization, are very commonly regarded as in- 

 separable ; but the Feejeeans, notwithstanding their ferocious and 

 barbarous manners, are found to possess a high degree of skill in 

 cultivating the soil. 



A little further west, at Vanikoro, the trunk of a tree, rudely 

 fashioned, is simply grooved to afford foothold, while an outrigger 

 is attached, and a mat is spread for a sail.* In our part of the globe, 

 few would be willing, thus on a simple log to launch out into an un- 

 known ocean. The pattern, however, seems to shadow forth the 

 Feejee canoe : and it by no means follows, that the race which eli- 

 cited the spark of civilization, should have most profited by the ad- 

 vantage. 



The inventions of the Negrillo, a race so averse to, and almost 

 refusing voluntary intercourse with strangers, were not likely to 

 benefit the rest of mankind. If acquired, elaborated, and improved 

 by the Feejeeans; still, from the social condition of this people, their 

 dislike of change, and unwillingness to leave home, the knowledge 

 might not have extended further. A third race is called into requi- 

 sition, one of a roving disposition, the proper children of the sea; 



* See the vignette in D'Urville's History of the Voyage of the Astrolabe. 



