If the opinion of these writers is allowed to be well-founded,
and the Malayo-Polynesian nations are regarded as really the
offspring of one family, we shall find in the* ramifications of
that stock examples of almost every variety of the human
species. A very brief retrospect of the ground we have gone
over will suffice to demonstraile this assertion^
We may he allowed to regard the Malays in Menangkabao
or some tribe nearly related to them, or perhaps the Tagalas
of the Philippine Islands, who have a near physical resem*-
blance to each- other, as the prototypes of the Malayo-
Polynesian family. It will appear, then* that the germ of
the whole stock was a * tribe differing * little in its physical
character from the Indo-Chinese type. The pure Malays
have, as we have seen, the figure of body, the ’peculiar
countenance, the broad flat face widened/out a t the zygomata,
the light and slender frame, and the sallow or yellowish
eomplexiori of the Indo-Chinese nations. But if Thki ‘was
the original type of the whole Polynesian family, how widely
different have they become in some islands of • the Pacifies.
Some of these tribes, as we have seen, are pedple of great
stature ; they are tall, stout, and corpulent»"bat able-bodied
men; Their stoutness and obesity1 is referred by most-voyagers
to a very abundant supply of nutrition and to other local
circumstances favouring physical developemerit: The shape
of the head and features, as it has been repeatedly observed,
actually resembles the European and Southern Asiatic. Testimonies
to this effect may be seen in the preceding sections.
Among the Tahitians» Nukahivans, Tongans, and Others, the
direction of the eyes is said to be quite straight, the eyes large,
open, and not deeply set, the nose aquiline, and the whole
countenance European.
The insular tribes of the Pacific are remarkable for the
great variety both of features and complexion which displays
itself within the limits of a single island or a single community.
In many of these tribes the prevalent complexion,
or the colour of the people who form the great mass of the
community, is very much darker than that of the genuine
Malays, while the superior caste are much nearer to the
northern nations of Europe. The Malays appear to be a
middle term between these, and it is difficult to say which
party recedes most from the original type. The lower castes
are dark. Among tihe> Tahitians and Maorians the lower
class of people are almost black, ior vat least very dark,
their hair very crisp andr somewhat woolly» and their features
of a corresponding ugliness.:.! People of this caste, as all the
writers assure us, are; jcfontinually exposed/.:to the/agency
tte climate; and they have, approximated towards the character
of the savage races* Thesfchieftains and the people, of a
higher grade in the same islands: lead ani indolent and. luxurious
life. • They have attained thb> avefage/ ^tatureT of Europeans,
and in, some instances exceed it.. They- haves a fair
complexion and all the characterscof a highly developed
sanguine or xanthous®onstitution.
It -seems to have been the ultimate? andi full persuasion of
all those persons who. have mad© a. dong* abode in the islands
of the'Pacific ;under circumstances! favourable tp,< accurate
invesrigarion, that ftbese phenomena^cam only he eXpl^iu?d'»®P
the isuppositfen .that Aheyiresult from, the agencyrbf climate
and-physical influenceS'QU the/original raoet< r TheiUppearance
of a xanthous- complexion -under moderate temperature and
among people living in a state of pilstecfemfrom severities, of
elimaterih‘So common an ohservatiopi and o n e .th a t we have
already Traced in* so many instances in almost every other
part of the world* that we may well look for it in The Polynesian
islands; and there, when we find this change connected
and co-extensive with another physical ; charge,. we -may
fairly infer that these connected phenomena have one and the
same cause. I allude to changes in .thegstature, the form, of
the head, the quality of the hai% &c.- There- seems to be no
other hypothesis, if we open the widest field to-conjecture»
that can in any way explain all the tphenonmaa? o£< physical
variety that display themselves in the» <Dceani£ .region, and
this sufficiently accounts for all of them»-mamely>.the deviation
of the primitive Malayan or Indo-Chinese type on the
one side to the character of the European, and on the other
to a conformation of body very similar to that of the African.