THE TWO RACES WHICH PEOPLED POLYNESIA. 
59 
the Polynesians is another proof of their long isolation from 
the rest of the world. The New Zealanders, in common 
with the rest of their race, divide time by lunar months and 
count by nights. This seems to have been the old way even 
in Britain ; we still say sennight, the seventh night, and fort- 
night the fourteenth night. The Maori measured seasons by 
the rising of stars. The first moon after the appearing of 
Puanga is the beginning of the new year ; this is in June.* 
The testimony of Sir S. Baker, the discoverer of the Nile, 
in behalf of the negro is : “ In infancy and childhood their 
intelligence was equal, if not superior to that of Euro- 
peans, but at twelve or fourteen the intellectual capacity 
appeared to have lost its powers of further development/ 5 
This testimony is most important, as it establishes the fact 
of there being no primary or inherent inferiority of mind in 
the negro ; he begins life equal if not superior to the Euro- 
pean, but he falls off as he advances in age. Is not this 
easily to be accounted for, just at that period when artificial 
aid is called in to carry on the mind of the European, the 
negro is left to struggle unaided, with all the antagonism ot 
savage life. The youthful intellect of the African by twelve, 
grasps all that his parents can have to teach, and is then 
hurried away into all the realities of his uncivilized state ; at 
that point when civilization steps in, and education supplies 
the means of further strengthening and drawing out the 
mind of the European, the African is only being instructed 
in all the evils of heathen life, which must quench or stop 
the further growth of mind. 
It is true our Maori children also seem to be as precocious 
as the European, and to make equal advancement in our 
schools during their early years and then stand still ; but 
this is to be accounted for, by their being too early called 
away to the duties of life, the same as it is with our own 
* That the human mind is equally capable of expansion to whatever section 
of the “race it belongs,” is seen by the progress it made in Mexico. That 
they should have observed the passing of the sun in the zenith of Mexico shows, 
that such observations could only have been made originally in countries situ- 
ated between the tropics. First they decided the year to be 360 days, then 
365, and finally 365 \...*Tke Great Deserts of America, vol. i. p. 129. 
