a portion of the adjacent region, in which they have
entirely supplanted the indigenous inhabitants if it ever
possessed an y ; and to spread much of their language,
their domestic animals, and their customs far over the
Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not
at all, modified the physical or moral characteristics of
the people.
I believe, therefore, that all the peoples of the various
islands can be grouped either with the Malays or the
Papuans; and that these two have no traceable affinity
to each other. I believe, further, that all the races east of
the line I have drawn have more affinity for each other
than they have for any of the races west of that line ;—
that, in fact, the Asiatic races include the Malays, and all
have a continental origin, while the Pacific races, including
all to the east of the former (except perhaps some in the
Northern Pacific), are derived, not from any existing continent,
but from lands which now exist or have recently
existed in the Pacific Ocean. These preliminary observations
will enable the reader better to apprehend the
importance I attach to the details of physical form or
moral character, which I shall give in describing the
inhabitants of many of the islands.
C H A P T E R II.
SINGAPORE.
(a sketch of the town and island as seen during several visits
from 1854 TO 1862.)
TjlEW places are more interesting to a traveller from
Europe than the town and island of Singapore, furnishing,
as it does, examples of a variety of Eastern races,
and of many different religions and modes of life. The
government, the garrison, and the chief merchants are
English; but the great mass of the population is Chinese,
including some of the wealthiest merchants, the agriculturists
of the interior, and most of the mechanics and
labourers. The native Malays are usually fishermen and
boatmen, and they form the main body of the police. The
Portuguese of Malacca supply a large number of the clerks
and smaller merchants. The Klings of Western India are
a numerous body of Mahometans, and, with many Arabs,
are petty merchants and shopkeepers. The grooms and
washermen are all Bengalees, and there is a small but
highly respectable class of Parsee merchants. Besides
these, there are numbers of Javanese sailors and domestic