22 THH ETHNOLOGY OF TIIK INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



far more inftVnfud lltan was fonnerly supposed, and it is now quite 

 certain that in the earliest stage of maritime art, that of rude 

 ranoes or even rafts, families may be borne to Hi nui saved on 

 distant roasts. Reduce the pi oportion of race- producing castaways 

 as we mav, the lowest will suffice to people all the shores and ar- 

 chipelagoes of the Indo-Pm ific Ocean.* 



As it b essential to a correct understanding o| the method in 

 whirh 1 intend to treat ihe ethnology of rite Archipelago, that the 

 above vieuw of the necessary disfwrsion of mankind and multiplica- 

 tion of seiwrate tribe*, and of their necessary reunion, by natural 

 rams**, should be kept constantly in mind, I will recapitulate them 

 in a more abstrHCt form- . 



The habitable surface of the globe being of limited extent, and 

 mankind being capable of multiplication by geometrical progression, 

 it follows tHt whatever number of normal centres be assumed, 

 their expanding circumferences must meet and successive centres of 

 uaraiilalion be formed, from the more powerful of which influences 

 will radiate till the whole human mass become ethnically homo- 

 getWUS. After all allowances are made for physical impedimenta, 

 diversities of organism and character, and dartructions of tribes, a 

 certain average rate of progression DM remain, and the results 

 will be ultimately the same however much the rate be diminished. 

 Tl.f great work of :i*«imilati»n U rit-ver interrupted. Particular 

 civilisations mav cease to be contatrious, particular race* may 

 become secluded or perish, but others pronagate or receive new 

 influences, or lieej. iu ur-tio:i tin- M. A Uniterm covering ot ulcus, 

 religious, social, scientific and artistic, that has become fixed over 

 half the globe, mav be rent and its continuity hroken, but the 

 very energy that shattered it, barbaric as iis first character mav 

 be, will become the cradle of a new and higher ctvilwation which 

 muv in its turn, overspread the world .t 



6f the lowest ethnic locations which must at one time have filled 

 the Archipelago and Eastern Asia, many tmil remain in the pos- 

 ses-ion of secluded tribes who have hitherto been little affectedby 

 the revolutions that have happened around thum,or, by the partial or 

 occasional influence of more civilised tribes. It is probahte how- 

 ever that none now exist who have eutirely eluded this mfluenee, 



• IT is hardly iwcessarv to tvmarlt that Ihe influent* of lhe»- hitrbways iu 

 nrlffinallnjf Tare* if greatest iri UV infancy of navigation, when man wow 

 first bom nut by thn tldt* nr currents of rlx*n, to the open , ^V'^Sll!!^ 

 \eTiiured to trust himself upon it, tun bland* were uninhabited. A certain pro- 

 portion of all the pair, that <Ud not perhui and nsdieda iww coast w ''«"«l&iund 

 trihe*. But s« population spread, th« castaway* would generally be nbtorooU or 

 ki Uv • i f!„ irwular communities. .1 



t It must never be overlook^ thai every kind of ethnic dktrict from in* pri- 

 mary seats to wide regions, and every kind of human defwlopmeut from rj»« 

 fdmnle ajiff sara"* ro the elnlinmT»* nud rHlifd, haw eonteinr»ruH*>tMiy t tir.t<<i 

 fnr tl.p last 0 1 n HI anil pmhuWv for a Jitntt prriod previou^y. (MviMi m >md 



«^TfjraU-m ai wffM'an ront.ift and aiwmUarton haw always been vaciously operat ■ 

 bj &EmA parts of the world, and frequently in the same dktnct. 



