THK 
JOURNAL 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS TO A SERIES OF CONTRIBU¬ 
TIONS TO THE ETHNOLOGY OF THE INDIAN 
ARCHIPELAGO.* 
The Indian Archipelago possesses an extraordinary abundance 
and variety of materials for elucidating the most interesting and 
the most intricate questions in ethnology. A complete account of 
the different rices by which it is inhabited would furnish results 
applicable to the investigation of the connection of races in every 
olhei icgion ot the world. It would, in fact, enable us to con¬ 
struct a science ot ethnology, by the principles of which, based 
as they would foe in the unchangeble physical and moral nature 
of man, we might traverse in greater certainty those human pro¬ 
vinces where a deeper darkness hides the traces of early history. 
Without such a general science, the investigation of the origin 
and relations ot particular groups of human families, must con¬ 
tinue to be attended with many liabilities to error. In many cases 
it is so difficult to decide whether certain characteristics in Ian- 
# f 
It is not the object of this paper to give any general account of the Hu¬ 
man Races m the Archipelago and their respective origens and relations, 
but simply to oiler some observations on the nature and scope of the enoui- 
nes into which we shall be led in considering particular races, on the spirit 
in wlw h wc think they should be conducted, and on the intrinsic interest of 
the languages ol even Hie rudest tribes. 
VOL. I . ISO. XV, 
7 
