30 
pelago; but farther I shall at present not attempt to trace 
them. They have affinities with the Malays and other brown 
people now living in the islands of the Archipelago. Bat I 
wish yon to understand that I do not think they have sprung 
from the Malay race as we at present know it. Doubtless, 
the Sawaioris are now more nearly in the primitive condition 
of the ancestors of the whole family than the Malays. I 
believe that at an early period (not later than the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, but probably earlier) the ancestors 
of the Sawaioris, the Tarapons, the Malays, and also the 
Malagasy of Madagascar, dwelt together in the islands of the 
Indian Archipelago. From some cause or other — probably 
war — a portion of that people migrated eastward to Polynesia. 
Finding the islands in the west occupied by the black Papuan 
race, they went on until they reached some of the islands in 
central Polynesia — perhaps Samoa — and there they settled. 
From this point they have spread abroad to the distant eastern 
islands ; some have gone north-east to the Hawaiian Archi- 
pelago ; some have gone south-west to New Zealand ; and a few 
others, at various times, have gone westward into the Papuan 
area, and have either formed colonies there, or have mixed 
with the Papuan people and intermarried among them. Some 
have, also, in comparatively recent times, gone north-west and 
mixed with the Tarapon people who entered Polynesia much 
later than the Sawaioris. 
These Sawaiories being isolated from contact with other 
people have retained their primitive manners with consider- 
able purity, losing no doubt a good deal of what they originally 
possessed, owing to this isolation and to their living in 
small communities and on small islands. The changes which 
have taken place in them since their settlement have probably 
nearly all been losses, for want of circumstances to call for the 
use of some of the knowledge or habits whieh they possessed. 
There would be little or no addition to their knowledge, or 
change of any kind in the shape of accretions. Change would 
probably be entirely in the way of loss. 
But, the people being naturally very conservative, the dis- 
integrating process would go on very slowly. This is shown 
by the remarkable similarity existing between their customs, 
their knowledge, and their languages over the vast space which 
they occupy. Hence I consider that these Sawaiori people at 
the present day represent very fairly the condition of the pri- 
mitive race from which they sprung at the time when they 
migrated from the common home. 
The only time-mark which I know as giving an indication of 
the period of this migration, is the absence of Sanscrit elements 
