The
radical effects of long-continued isolation; and it is my firm
conviction, that when the botany and the entomology of New Guinea
and the surrounding islands become as well known as are their
mammals and birds, these departments of nature will also plainly
indicate the radical distinctions of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-
Malayan regions of the great Malay Archipelago.
CHAPTER XL.
THE RACES OF MAN IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.
PROPOSE to conclude this account of my Eastern travels, with a
short statement of my views as to the races of man which inhabit
the various parts of the Archipelago, their chief physical and
mental characteristics, their affinities with each other and with
surrounding tribes, their migrations, and their probable origin.
Two very strongly contrasted races inhabit the Archipelago - the
Malays, occupying almost exclusively the larger western half of
it, and the Papuans, whose headquarters are New Guinea and
several of the adjacent islands. Between these in locality, are
found tribes who are also intermediate in their chief
characteristics, and it is sometimes a nice point to determine
whether they belong to one or the other race, or have been formed
by a mixture of the two.
The Malay is undoubtedly the most important of these two races,
as it is the one which is the most civilized, which has come most
into contact with Europeans, and which alone has any place in
history.
