180 
ON THE MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN 
voyage, makes their stature only 5 feet 10 inches, and says nothing 
of their superior strength.* 
The other physical features of this race are given by Freycinet 
and Cook. The first describes the Sandwich islanders as having 
oval faces, noses a little flattened, small black eyes, large mouths, 
projecting lips, long lank hair, a little frizzled, very little beard, and 
a complexion of a clear brown. 
Cook says of their colour that it is a “nut-brown,” and that “it 
would difficult to make a nearer comparison, taking in all the dif¬ 
ferent lines of that colour.” 
In so far, then, as physical form is concerned, there can, 1 think, 
be little doubt that this race, so tall and well-proportioned, is a very 
distinct one from the short and squat Malay, from which it has been 
gratuitously imagined to be derived. 
The varieties of the Negro race, within the scope under consider¬ 
ation, are more numerous than those of the brown complexioned. 
They have been usually called Papua, which is the corruption of a 
Malay adjective meaning “ frizzled.” Some writers have also called 
them Austral Negroes, evidently an improper appellation, as they 
are found equally in the northern as the southern hemisphere. Per¬ 
haps the name Oriental Negro is more suitable, but that of Negritos, 
or Little Negroes, applied to them by the Spaniards, is still better. 
Beginning from the west, we first find a race of oriental negroes 
occupying the whole chain of the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of 
Bengal, between the 10° and 14 J of N. latitude. This is a dimi¬ 
nutive squat being, not exceeding 5 feet high, of a sooty-black co¬ 
lour, with fiat nose, thick lips, and short woolly hair.* Two indi¬ 
viduals of this race, whom 1 saw in Pinang, to which they had been 
brought by the late General Kydd, who had superintended an at¬ 
tempted British settlement on the Andamans, entirely agreed with 
this account. 
Lately, a race of Negroes has been unexpectedly discovered in 
the interior of the Nicobar Islands, hitherto believed to have been 
* Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition. London, 1847, 
* Sjme’s Embassy to Ava. 1800, 
