much of their language, their domestic animals, and their customs far over the
Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not at all, modified the
physical or moral characteristics of the people.
I believe, therefore, that all the peoples of the various islands can be grouped
either with the Malays or the Papuans; and that these two have no traceable
affinity to each other. I believe, further, that all the races east of the line I have
drawn have more affinity for each other than they have for any of the races west
of that line; that, in fact, the Asiatic races include the Malays, and all have a
continental origin, while the Pacific races, including all to the east of the former
(except perhaps some in the Northern Pacific), are derived, not from any existing
continent, but from lands which now exist or have recently existed in the Pacific
Ocean. These preliminary observations will enable the reader better to
apprehend the importance I attach to the details of physical form or moral
character, which I shall give in describing the inhabitants of many of the islands.