The Malay Archipelago [pp. 479-495]

488 T/ze Malay Arcz4ipelago. [July,
and strange animals, which made the world after the flood a
better habitation for man. As we said, however, we put this
fact of the recent disappearance of strange and huge fauna,
which favors the belief in a universal deluge, over against the
other of the isolated distribution of different forms of animal
life, which seems to make it impossible; and wait for further
investigation and research to tunnel through this difficulty.
We pass now to the question about the two races, so dissimilar, which occupy different portions of this Archipelago. Our
author considers them so entirely different, that they belong
to two distinct races, rather than modifications of one and the
same race.* To this we may assent so far as they present distinct peculiarities, and show an origin which for centuries has
been separate, but not if he means, as we suppose he does, that
they did not descend from one common pair. If man was only
an animal, there would have been a chance for transmutation
of species; but as he is man, he must forsooth have come from
another race. However, we accept the fact of difference in
many peculiarities. The Papuan or New Guinean resembles
first the Polynesian; and second, has certain clearly marked affinities which connect him with the negro of Africa, rather
than with any of the nations of Asia. Supposing the ancestors of the Papuan to have come from Africa rather than Asia,
the difficult question is, how did they get across the Indian
Ocean to Polynesia? It seems a big distance to pass by sea
for any methods of navigation now known to these races. Possibly there has been a decadence in knowledge, as exhibited by
the native races on our own continent and in other parts of
the world, when the descendants of former generations could
not rebuild the cities and temples among the ruins of which
they dwell. Europeans and Americans are always thinking of
the progress of the race; Asiatics of its decadence. When we
find the savage, we hope our idea is true of his future, that of
the Asiatic may be correct of his past history, rather than that
he has always stood in the same position. Mr. Wallace himself states that in Java there are ruins of elaborate and well
constructed temples, where solid mason-work has in a measure
resisted the ravages of time in a tropical climate, which are
* Malay Archijelago, p. 532.