And Even If Their Lenity Could Be Proved, It Would In No
Way Affect My Argument For The Close Affinity Of The Papuan And
Polynesian Races, And The Radical Distinctness Of Both From The
Malay.
Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and its goat
widespread groups of coral-reefs mark out tile position of former
continents and islands.
The rich and varied, yet strangely
isolated productions of Australia and New Guinea, also indicate
an extensive continent where such specialized forms were
developed. The races of men now inhabiting these countries are,
therefore, most probably the descendants of the races which
inhabited these continents and islands. This is the most simple
and natural supposition to make. And if we find any signs of
direct affinity between the inhabitants of any other part of the
world and those of Polynesia, it by no means follows that the
latter were derived from the former. For as, when a Pacific
continent existed, the whole geography of the earth's surface
would probably be very different from what it now is, the present
continents may not then have risen above the ocean, and, when
they were formed at a subsequent epoch, may have derived some of
their inhabitants from the Polynesian area itself. It is
undoubtedly true that there are proofs of extensive migrations
among the Pacific islands, which have led to community of
language from the sandwich group to New Zealand; but there are no
proofs whatever of recent migration from any surrounding country
to Polynesia, since there is no people to be found elsewhere
sufficiently resembling the Polynesian race in their chief
physical and mental characteristics.
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