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
the 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
remote as the origin of a very distinct race - a race as different
from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is in physical
characters.
As bearing upon this question it is important to point out the
harmony which exists, between the line of separation of the human
races of the Archipelago and that of the animal productions of
the same country, which I have already so fully explained and
illustrated. The dividing lines do not, it is true, exactly
agree; but I think it is a remarkable fact, and something more
than a mere coincidence, that they should traverse the same
district and approach each other so closely as they do. If,
however, I am right in my supposition that the region where the
dividing line of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan regions of
zoology can now be drawn, was formerly occupied by a much wider
sea than at present, and if man existed on the earth at that
period, we shall see good reason why the races inhabiting the
Asiatic and Pacific areas should now meet and partially
intermingle in the vicinity of that dividing line.
It has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley, that the
Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of Africa than to
any other race. The resemblance both in physical and mental
characteristics had often struck myself, but the difficulties in
the way of accepting it as probable or possible, have hitherto
prevented me front giving full weight to those resemblances.
Geographical, zoological, and ethnological considerations render
it almost certain, that if these two races ever had a common
origin, it could only have been at a period far more remote than
any which has yet been assigned to the antiquity of the human
race.
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