spurred one. The Gallus Bangkiva, the supposed original of our common poultry,
is alone widely disseminated, being found in all the considerable islands, including
those of the Philippine group. Java however has, besides this, a second species confined
to itself, the Gallus furcatua. The Cassowary, the suwari of the Malays, exists
only, as far as known, in the island of Ceram, in the Molucca Sea. The birds of Celebes
differ almost wholly from those of the great islands to the west of it. In Borneo first
occur the Megapodes, or birds that, like reptiles, leave their eggs to be hatched by
the heat of fermentation and the sun. They occur again in the Mindoro, one of the
Philippines, and in New Guinea. The family of parrots, of a great many species, are
spread over the whole of the Indian islands, from Sumatra to the Philippines and
New Guinea, but the species often differ even in contiguous islands. In those of
Celebes, for example, the predominant colour of the parrots (in Malay, nuri or loory)
is green, but in the adjacent islands of the Molucca Sea it is a bright red or a crimson.
The cockatoos exist only in New Guinea and the islets on its coast. The birds of
paradise (manuk-dewata, birds of the gods) are confined to the same locality. Of the
familiar birds of Europe and continental India, the only one usually met with, and it
pervades the whole of the islands, is the common carrion crow. The house-sparrow,
which is abundant in Siam, down to the thirteenth degree of north latitude, is found
in the islands only in a few spots, introduced by Europeans.
The seas of the Indian and Philippine islands, and their rivers and lakes, abound
in fish and reptiles. Among the most remarkable of these are several species of
alligator, several of tortoises, land and sea, including the esculent and that which yields
the tortoise-shell; the pearl, and mother-of-pearl oyster; the tripang, or hulothurion,
and several species of sharks, the fins of which are an object of trade. The ordinary
esculent fish are numerous, the species often differing on the coasts of the different
islands. Thus of 108 species found in the Sea of Celebes and described, (probably not
more than one-eighth of those that exist,) 64 only are found on the coast of Java. In
the markets of Celebes, it is said that not fewer than 300 different species are, at one
time or another, offered for sale. A few of them are of excellent quality, equalling,
if not surpassing, in delicacy and flavour those of the European seas. Some frequent
the rivers in the spawning season like salmon; and other sea-fish are multiplied in
stews, a practice carried to a large extent in Java. The curing of ordinary fish and
the pickling of prawns forms a considerable business on all the coasts, and cured fish
is a considerable branch of trade between the coast and interior. The only sea
mammal known west of Celebes is the Dugong, or Lamentine of naturalists, the first
of these names being a corruption of the Malay Duyong. The spermaceti whale
frequents only the southern portion of the Molucca Sea, where it is pursued by the
Anglo-Saxon fishermen. The inhabitants of Solor, a volcanic island east of Eloris, are
the only people of the Archipelago that fish the whale. To the Malays and Javanese
the animal is unknown, except by its mythic name borrowed from the Sanscrit, gajah-
mina, “ the elephant fish.” The phoci or seals are unknown in the Archipelago.
Two distinct races of man are the original inhabitants of the Indian islands; a
brown-complexioned, lank-haired people, the Malayan; and a black frizzle-haired one,
the Negro. The first of these constitutes the great bulk of the inhabitants of most
of the islands, and it is only among the nations composing it that any respectable
amount of civilisation has been attained. I t constitutes the entire population of
Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and Celebes, and of several of the considerable islands of the
Philippine group. The Malayan race is of a short squat form, with high cheek-bones,
large mouth, and flattened nose; the hair of the head long, lank, and strong, and
with very little beard. With the exception of New Guinea and some of the islands
on its coast which are wholly peopled by them, the Negro race is found only in a
few localities among the brown-complexioned. They occur first in the mountains of
the Malay peninsula, and next in the Philippine group, being here confined to the
mountains of Luzon, Panay, Negros, Mindoro, and Mindano. Under the common
name of Negros, several different races of black men with frizzled hair seem to exist.
The negros of the peninsula are a small race, under five feet high, and those of the
Philippines are shorter and slenderer than the brown race of the same islands, while
the negroes of New Guinea are an athletic people, at least equal in stature to the
Malay race. All these negros agree in having dark complexions, frizzled hair
growing in distinct tufts, but not woolly, in flat noses and much obliquity of fascial
angle. At the same time they differ widely from the African, the Madagascar, and the
Australian negros, the hair of the head although frizzled ,not being woolly, the skin
being less black, and the lower portion of the face less protuberant. There is, of
course, no common native name by which all these negros are known. The Malays
call them Orang puwa-puwa, the last of these words, which Europeans have corrupted
into Papua, being an adjective meaning “ frizzled,” and the first “ man.” The
brown-complexioned people of the Philippines call them Aeta, or Ita, a term the
origin of which is unknown. The Spaniards call those of the Philippines negritos,
or little negros, from their diminutive size in comparison with the negros of Africa,
i This however, could not be applied to the whole race, for it would exclude the most
numerous section, the negros of New Guinea. Sometimes they have been called
Austral negros, but neither will this designation answer, since they equally exist in
the northern as the southern hemisphere. Papua negros would probably be the
I best designation, since it would include both themselves and the negros of the
! Pacific Islands, without including Africans or Australians.
The two broad distinctions of the man of the Asiatic islands, is into a brown race
with lank, and a black one with frizzled, hair ; but in reality it will probably be found
that there are five distinct races,—the Malay, the Negro-Malay, the Papuan or New
Guinea Negro, the Negrito or Little Negro of the Malay Peninsula, and the Negrito
of the Philippines ; for there is really nothing to show that these different negros
belong to one and the same family of man.
Among the tribes of the Archipelago, some have attained a considerable amount of
; civilisation, one far more advanced than that of any nation of America on its dis-
I covery ; others remain still in a savage condition. The civilisation of the more
I advanced nations is shown by the domestication of animals applicable for labour and
I food ; by a knowledge of the precious and useful metals, and especially of malleable
f iron ; by the culture of corns, pulses, and palms ; by the growth of textile materials,
i with the arts of spinning, weaving, and colouring fabrics made from them; by the
invention of letters, and by the possession of forms of polity calculated to afford a
| certain degree of security to life and property. The nations who have made this
I advancement, although in a very unequal degree, are five of Sumatra, two of Java,
| two of Celebes, and ten of the Philippines. Of these, by far the most distinguished,
! and those who have exercised the greatest influence on the rest, are the Malay and
Javanese. The condition of the less advanced tribes is very various. Some wander
in the forests in quest of a precarious subsistence, without fixed habitations, as some
of those of Borneo, Sumatra, Luzon, and Mindano ; others, as some of the tribes of
the same islands, and the negros of New Guinea, have fixed habitations, have
domesticated hogs and poultry for food, but no animals for labour, and grow roots
and corn : others again have, by the assistance of trade, although possessing no
domestic animals for labour, and no knowledge of the art of making malleable iron
or having invented letters, attained a higher degree of civilisation than the last. Thé
condition of several of the inhabitants of the islands of the Molucca Sea, on their
discovery by Europeans, is an example of this last state.
The total population of the Malay and Philippine Islands may be reckoned at
twenty millions, of which seventeen are in the islands within the volcanic band;
namely, in Sumatra, which may have 2,000,000 ; in Java, which has about 10,000 000-
in the Philippines, which have 4,000,000 ; and in Bali and Lomboc, which may have
between them about 1,000,000. This, of course, is but a rough estimate, for, with the
exception of the European possessions, no census has ever been attempted.
The story of a people who have no history, and who indeed, are incapable of writing
history, can only be gleaned from the records of the strangers who have settled
among them, or by an examination of their own languages. The strangers who have
from time to time settled in the Indian islands, or held intercourse with them for
trade, have consisted of Hindus, Arabians, Persians, Chinese, and Europeans, chiefly
Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch, and English. Of these, the largest influence on the
manners of the native inhabitants was unquestionably exercised by the Hindus.
Their intercourse in a direct form was probably confined to the two islands of
Sumatra and Java, but chiefly to the last of these, where they built splendid temples
the rums of which remain,—where they introduced their calendar, and one of their
1 eP°chs, and into the language of which they infused a considerable amount of their
pacred tongue, the Sanscrit, with some portion of their literature and legends
a small admixture of the Telugu, a living vernacular language of Southern India!
; When or how the first intercourse ,of the Hindus with the Malayan countries com-
M^iU for of historical records the Hindus are nearly as destitute
Malayan nations themselves. The Hindu records of Java will not with
any certainty, carry us back further than the year 1117 of the era of Salivana
Venetfm tmveTier W yearDofl Christ 1195> not q™te a century before the celebrated
Venetian travellei, Marco Polo, was passing through the Archipelago in a fleet of