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. 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.
If the past history of these varied races is obscure and
uncertain, the future is no less so. The true Polynesians,
inhabiting the farthest isles of the Pacific, are no doubt doomed
to an early extinction. But the more numerous Malay race seems
well adapted to survive as the cultivator of the soil, even when
his country and government have passed into the hands of
Europeans. If the tide of colonization should be turned to New
Guinea, there can be little doubt of the early extinction of the
Papuan race. A warlike and energetic people, who will not submit
to national slavery or to domestic servitude, must disappear
before the white man as surely as do the wolf and the tiger.
I have now concluded my task. I have given, in more or less
detail, a sketch of my eight years' wanderings among the largest
and the most luxuriant islands which adorn our earth's surface. I
have endeavoured to convey my impressions of their scenery, their
vegetation, their animal productions, and their human
inhabitants. I have dwelt at some length on the varied and
interesting problems they offer to the student of nature. Before
bidding my reader farewell, I wish to make a few observations on
a subject of yet higher interest and deeper importance, which the
contemplation of savage life has suggested, and on which I
believe that the civilized can learn something from the savage
man.
We most of us believe that we, the higher races have progressed
and are progressing. If so, there must be some state of
perfection, some ultimate goal, which we may never reach, but to
which all true progress must bring nearer. What is this ideally
perfect social state towards which mankind ever has been, and
still is tending? Our best thinkers maintain, that it is a state
of individual freedom and self-government, rendered possible by
the equal development and just balance of the intellectual,
moral, and physical parts of our nature, - a state in which we
shall each be so perfectly fitted for a social existence, by
knowing what is right, and at the same time feeling an
irresistible impulse to do what we know to be right., that all
laws and all punishments shall be unnecessary. In such a state
every man would have a sufficiently well-balanced intellectual
organization, to understand the moral law in all its details, and
would require no other motive but the free impulses of his own
nature to obey that law.
Now it is very remarkable, that among people in a very low stage
of civilization, we find some approach to such a perfect social
state. I have lived with communities of savages in South America
and in the East, who have no laws or law courts but the public
opinion of the village freely expressed. Each man scrupulously
respects the rights of his fellow, and any infraction of those
rights rarely or never takes place. In such a community, all are
nearly equal. There are cone of those wide distinctions, of
education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant,
which are the product of our civilization; there is none of that
wide-spread division of labour, which, while it increases wealth,
products also conflicting interests; there is not that severe
competition and struggle for existence, or for wealth, which the
dense population of civilized countries inevitably creates. All
incitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and petty ones are
repressed, partly by the influence of public opinion, but chiefly
by that natural sense of justice and of his neighbour's right,
which seems to be, in some degree, inherent in every race of man.
Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state
in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in
morals. It is true that among those classes who have no wants
that cannot be easily supplied, and among whom public opinion has
great influence; the rights of others are fully respected.
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