had, in all probability, an Asiatic rather th an . a Polynesian
origin.
Now, turning to the eastern parts of the Archipelago, I
iind, by comparing my own observations with those of the
most trustworthy travellers and missionaries, that a race
identical in all its chief features with the Papuan, is found
in all the islands as far east as the Fijis; beyond this the
brown Polynesian race, or some intermediate type, is
spread everywhere over the Pacific. The descriptions of
these latter often agree exactly with the characters of the
brown indigenes of Gilolo and Ceram.
It is to be especially remarked that the brown and
the black Polynesian races closely resemble each other.
Their features are almost identical, so that portraits of a
New Zealander. or Otaheitan will often serve accurately
to represent a Papuan or Timorese, the darker colour and
more frizzly hair of the latter being th e . only differences.
They are both tall races. They agree in their love of art
and the style of their decorations. They are energetic,
demonstrative, joyous, and laughter-loving, and in all these
particulars they differ widely from the Malay.
I believe, therefore, that the numerous intermediate
forms that occur among the countless islands .of the
Pacific, are not merely the result of a mixture of these
races, but are, to some extent, truly intermediate or transitional^
and that the brown and the black, the Papuan,
the natives of Gilolo and Ceram, the Fijian, the inhabitants
of the Sandwich Islands and those of New Zealand,
are all varying forms of one great Oceanic or Polynesian
race.
It is, however, quite possible, and perhaps probable,
that the broWn Polynesians were originally the produce of
a mixture of Malays, or some lighter coloured Mongol
race with the dark Papuans ; but if so, the intermingling
took place at such a remote epoch, and has been so assisted
by the continued' influence of physical conditions and of
natural selection, leading to the preservation of a special
type suited to those conditions, that it has become a fixed
and stable race with no signs of mongrelism, and showing
such a decided preponderance of Papuan character, that
it can best be classified as a modification of J;he Papuan
type. The occurrence of a decided Malay element in the
Polynesian languages, has evidently nothing to do with
any such ancient physical connexion. It is altogether
a recent phenomenon, originating in the roaming habits of
the chief Malay tribes; and this is proved by the fact
that we find actual modern words of the Malay and
Javanese languages in use in Polynesia, so little disguised
by peculiarities of pronunciation as to be easily
recognisable—not mere Malay roots only to be detected
by the elaborate researches of the philologist, as would
certainly have been the case had their introduction been as