other as both are from all the rest of their species.
This is the only portion of the globe which presents
so unusual a phenomenon. One of these
races may generally be described as a brown-com-
plexioned people, with lank hair, and the other as
a black, or rather sooty-coloured race, with woolly
or frizzled hair.
The brown and negro races of the Archipelago
may be considered to present, in their physical and
moral character, a complete parallel with the wnite
and negro races of the western world. The first-
have always displayed as eminent a relative superiority
over the second as the race of white men
have done over the negroes of the west. All the
indigenous civilization of the Archipelago has
sprung from them, and the negro race is constantly
found in the most savage state. That race is
to be traced from one extremity of the Archipelago
to another, but is necessarily least frequent
where the most civilized race is most numerous,
and seems utterly to have disappeared where the
civilization of the fairer race has proceeded farthest,
as in Sumatra, Java, and perhaps Celebes, just as
the Caribs, and other savages of America, have given
way to the civilized invaders of Europe. The negro
races of the Archipelago increase in numbers
in the inverse ratio of improvement, or, m other
words, as we proceed eastward* In some of the
Spice Islands their extirpation is matter of history.
They are the principal races in some of the islands
towards New Guinea, and nearly the sole inhabitants
of the portion of that great island itself,
which, from its physical character, we have a right
to include within the limits of the Archipelago.
A more particular account of both must now be
given.
The brown-coloured tribes agree so remarkably
in appearance among themselves, that one general
description will suffice for all, and the varieties may
generally be considered rather as objects of curious
than useful distinction. Their persons are short,
squat, and robust. Their medium height may be
reckoned, for the men, about five feet two inches,
and for the women, four feet eleven inches
which gives about four inches less than the average'
stature of Europeans. Their lower limbs
are rather large and heavy, but not ill-formed.
Their arms are rather fleshy than muscular. The
bosoms of the females are small for the robustness
of their frames, and the whole bust wants
that elegance of symmetry which belongs to the
women of Hindustan. The face is of a round
form; the mouth is wide; the teeth, when not
discoloured by art, remarkably fine; the chin is
rather of a square form ; the angles of the lower jaw
remarkably prominent; the cheek-bones are high,
and the cheek consequently rather hollow ; the
nose is short and small, never prominent, but never