proof of the distinctness of the Malayan and Papuan races, and the separation of
the geographical areas they inhabit. If these two great races were direct
modifications, the one of the other, we should expect to find in the intervening
region some homogeneous indigenous race presenting intermediate characters.
For example, between the whitest inhabitants of Europe and the black Klings of
South India, there are in the intervening districts homogeneous races which form
a gradual transition from one to the other; while in America, although there is a
perfect transition from the Anglo-Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to
the Indian, there is no homogeneous race forming a natural transition from one
to the other. In the Malay Archipelago we have an excellent example of two
absolutely distinct races, which appear to have approached each other, and
intermingled in an unoccupied territory at a very recent epoch in the history of
man; and I feel satisfied that no unprejudiced person could study them on the
spot without being convinced that this is the true solution of the problem, rather
than the almost universally accepted view that they are but modifications of one
and the same race.
The people of Muka live in that abject state of poverty that is almost always
found where the sago-tree is abundant. Very few of them take the trouble to
plant any vegetables or fruit, but live almost entirely on sago and fish, selling a
little tripang or tortoiseshell to buy the scanty clothing they require. Almost all
of them, however, possess one or more Papuan slaves, on whose labour they live
in almost absolute idleness, just going out on little fishing or trading excursions,
as an excitement in their monotonous existence. They are under the rule of the
Sultan of Tidore, and every year have to pay a small tribute of Paradise birds,
tortoiseshell, or sago. To obtain these, they go in the fine season on a trading
voyage to the mainland of New Guinea, and getting a few goods on credit from
some Ceram or Bugis trader, make hard bargains with the natives, and gain
enough to pay their tribute, and leave a little profit for themselves.
Such a country is not a very pleasant one to live in, for as there are no
superfluities, there is nothing to sell; and had it not been for a trader from Ceram
who was residing there during my stay, who had a small vegetable garden, and
whose men occasionally got a few spare fish, I should often have had nothing to
eat. Fowls, fruit, and vegetables are luxuries very rarely to be purchased at
Muka; and even cocoa-nuts, so indispensable for eastern cookery, are not to be
obtained; for though there are some hundreds of trees in the village, all the fruit
is eaten green, to supply the place of the vegetables the people are too lazy to
cultivate. Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or plantains, we had very short commons,
and the boisterous weather being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what