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tliat very reafoii is infinitely fuperior to it, being founded on principles
o f kindnefs and benevolence, and on that primitive fimpli-
city, which bears always the ftamp o f perfect undegenerated nature.
However, upon comparing every circumftance more minutely, as
the Taheiteans allow themfelves to have formerly been cannibals,
and likewife as their chiefs, Manahounes and warriors, are all o f a
fairer colour than the Tou tou s; it might not perhaps be incon-
fiftent to fuppofe, that the firft and aboriginal inhabitants o f the
South-Sea ifles, were o f the tribe o f the Papuas and people from
New-Guinea, and its nighhourhoo'd, and fuch as we found at Mal-
licollo, Tanna, and the New-Hebrides, and therefore were like
them men-eaters. It is probable-, that either by accident, or on
purpofe, the ancient Malays o f the Peninfula, o f Malacca, gradually
fpread among the ifles o f the Indian Teas; firft over Borneo,
then to the P h ilip p in e s from whence they-extended over the La -
drone iflands, the New-Carolines, and Pefcadoresan d laftly, they
■ removed to the Friendly-iflands, the -Society-i-flands, the Marquefas
and Eafter-ifland, to the Eaftward; and to New-Zeeland to the
Southward. T h is migration feems to have been fucceffive, and
perhaps feveral centuries elapfed, from the firft removal o f the Malays
to Borneo, to the arrival o f theft tribes at New-Zeeland, and
Eafter-ifland. In each ftation they acquired a new tinCture of
manners
H U M A N S P E C I E S. 359
manners and cuftoms varied by climate, and the particular fituation
o f each land which they gradually occupied? and being no doubt,
oppofcd by the firft aboriginal inhabitants,, it coft a great deal o f
bloodihed, labour, and time, before they, could entirely fu-bdue
them. In the large iflands, Borneo, Lucon, Maghindanao, and
fome of the Moluccas, they were not conquered, but. retired into
the interior mountainous parts ; and are ftill exifting and known
under the names of Byajos, Negrillos, Zambales, Allfoories, & c .
& c . In the .Friendly and Society-iflands, the aboriginal inhabitants
were fubdued, and became Toutous. Their more poliilied
and more civilized conquerors, eftablillied a mild and humane kind
o f government, wherein they introduced the oriental or Malay-
feudal fyftem, and endeavoured to wean their new fubjefts from
that cruel cannibalifm,. which generally prevailed among "all the
aboriginal black tribes o f the South-Sea. In this benevolent juid
humane undertaking they at Iaft fo fat fucceeded, that the name
only, and a faint tradition of the exifte-nce o f fuch a cuftom in
O-Taheitee, are preserved, This hypothefis likewife accounts for
the various traditions of the Taheiteans, who know, for" inftqnce, in
their neighbourhood, an ifle called Mamma,, -occupied- b y men-
eaters, which, according to this conjecture, is a. proof o f its ;bging
inhabited by die aboriginal black race of people,, who are, as far as.
we know, all cannibals.. In New-Zeeland, I am o f opinion, that
6 the
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