CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE BLACK NATIONS OF OCEANIC A. — KELÆENON ESIA.
S e c t io n I.— General Survey.
To the beautiful groupes of islands inhabited by the Polynesian
tribes, covered with rich végétation and spread out like
clusters of gems under the sunny s ty of the Great Ocean,
a striking contrast is presented when we turn towards the
adjoining region on the west.* The more concentred^ and
extensive lands of this western region contain long rangesi of
lofty mountains and unexplored wildernesses covered with
primeval forests. The tribes of human beings who inhabit
them are equally unlike the people of the eastern7 groupes.
Ferocious and sullen, of savage and menacing aspect, naturally
averse to intercourse with strangers, they have eVei* shunned
the approach of civilised people as uniformly as the Polynesians
have: courted it. Hence these tribes, their liational
affinities, and their languages are still almost wholly unknown,
in spite of the diligent inquiries of many intelligent person^
who have devoted themselves to the investigation. Their
physical characters are likewise very different from those
of the agile, graceful, and comparatively fair Polynesians.
Among these tribes are to be seen some who recede farthest
from the almost European or Asiatic beauty of the Tahitian
arid Marquesan islanders, and exceed in ugliness the most
ill-favoured brood of the African forests, whom they rival m
the sooty blackness of their complexion. The natural covering,
of their head is of various kinds ; some have the woolly hair of
the Negrdes of Guinea ;. Others have lank straight locks which
* A remark of M. Dumont d^Urville.
may be compared with those of the Esquimaux or the
Algonquins; while many, are striking to the beholder by
their broad, bushed-out, and frizzly periwigs, reaching the
circumference of three feet, by which they obtained from
Dampier the epithet of Mop-headed Papuas.
. For this region of black or nearly black and savage people
a distinguishing name isyet wanted. Australasia and Papua-
land are but parts of it, I shall term it Qceapic. Nigritia, or
Oceanic \ Negroland. A shorter name' for common use is
supplied by the compound epithet; of Kelsenonesia,* which
corresponds in form with Polynesia. g s]Jnder this designation
must be comprised all the insulated countries which are
situated underl4the„ same latitudes but . to the westward of
Oceanic Polynesia, that is, further west than the meridian of
the Fiji Islands, and to_ the southward, pfiMic^onesia and the
Indian Archipelago., In..the midst of this region is the great
island pr.-rather continent of-Australia or Australasia, nearly
equal to all Europe in extent. The, putskirj;s of Kelmnonesia,
©r= Oceanic Negroland,* stretch %r to the eastward and northf
wardaandf^estw^d'pf the?i%istmlian cqast. Asgreat amphitheatre
of islands sweeping*^rpm tire e.astern extremity of Netw
Ireland, and principally under the names oESolomon’s Islands
and the-New Hebrides, forming a prescent whiph frpnts towards
jÏÏjjp iporp 9pen .spas of, Eastern ;.Opeqnica,i constitutes
the eastern margin of the regipp now <|psqrijbed. New Cale-(
donia and,Tasmania may be j represented a,s belonging to this
range and forming its most southern tract. To the northward
New Guinea and the whole of Papua-land .come within the
circumference, pf Kelsenonesiajihut, in order to form an ample
idea ‘of its extent in this direction we must go back in imagination
to a time when the Malayo-Polynesian race had not
* From )i;(§anskrit Kalah,) black. A more usual spelling of
the word I have adopted would be Celsenonesia, but there seems no good
reason for dropping the Greek * and taking’ for it the Latin c with 6dr
modern pronunciation. Frendh’Svriters have used the epithet of Melanhsie
with the same meaning, disregarding etymological accuracy. This last name
is likewise- objectionable. as being too similar to another which the same
Writers have invented, viz. Malaisie. The term which I have chosen is more
correct and distinct.