THE TWO EACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
21 
was the case with those of New Zealand, "but in one grand 
respect did the Melanesian differ from the Polynesian, whilst 
the latter possesses many traditions referring to some of the 
grand events recorded in Scripture — the Fall, the Flood, the 
Dispersion, and the Temple — the Melanesians appear to be 
totally ignorant of them all, hence it is to be inferred that 
they were inhabitants of the southern hemisphere long 
anterior to the Polynesian, who, however long it may have 
been since they quitted their primal abode, did not do so 
until a period posterior to all those events, and that they 
must have sprung from a race intimately acquainted with 
Scripture history, which was unknown to the other. 
The remarks here made of the Melanesian race apply to 
them generally wherever they are found in the Southern he- 
misphere, and perhaps there is nothing more extraordinary 
than their wide dispersion therein, at some very remote 
period of man’s history. In India they ruled long before 
the arrival of the Hindu, and are still to be found amongst 
the hills and jungle, preserving their peculiar language and 
religion ; * however remote the origin of the Chinese may 
be, they acknowledge the existence of a far more ancient 
race living amongst them, who are regarded as the true 
Aborigines of the land, and styled the children of the soil, 
as old as its flowers and grass, f 
In the Island of Formosa there is an aboriginal race. Mr. 
White, Commissioner of customs at Takow, Formosa, sends 
* In Ceylon there is a race called the Weddahs, which is quite distinct from 
the Cingalese, and considered as the remnant of the original inhabitants of the 
island. 
f ‘ ‘ It appears singular that ancient as the Chinese are acknowledged to be as a 
people, there are still the remains of a far more* ancient race living amongst 
them, and who are regarded by the Chinese themselves as the true aboriginal 
inhabitants who call them Miau-Tze, or children of the soil, as well as the 
flowers and grass which peculiarly belong to it. They are divided into eighty- 
two tribes, subsist on wild fruits, fish, and the flesh of wild animals. They 
usually go about bare footed, are very scantily clad, lead a life full of privation 
and hardship, and invoke evil spirits as in days long gone by, so up to the 
present time. The Miau-Tze are restless and troublesome neighbours to the 
Chinese .” — Voyage of the Novara, vol. 2, p. 460. 
Mr. Medhurst also speaks of the same Meaoutze in the province of Kwangse: 
“The country about Lo-nguong is remarkable for the existence of a great number 
