The Malay Archipelago [pp. 479-495]

Tlze zlMalay Arc/zh claogo.
surrounded by bamboo huts-the highest style of architecture
of the descendants of these old temple builders. It may be
that, as nations, which in Solomon's time could make long voy ages, and the descendants of which could not make them now,
so the Africans may have had the enterprise then to leave
their native shores and find homes in Polynesia.
Still another conjecture is open without being obliged to re sort to any such theory as that Polynesia and Africa have been
peopled by more than one race. There are some animals allied
to apes, which go on all fours, called lemurs, which are com mon to some of these islands, and also to Madagascar. The
baribossa of Celebes and Bouru resembles the wart-hog of
Africa, and there are other striking resemblances in birds. Dr.
Sclater has suggested that a continent even existed in the
Indian Ocean which formed a link between Africa and Poly nesia, and has given to this hypothetical land the name of
Lemuria, from the animal which first suggested the connection
of those now widely separated regions (p. 290).
This subsidence of continents is a convenient escape from
many difficulties. And of the fact in the general there is no
doubt, just as there are rocks all about us which have been
elevated from their ocean beds; but yet subsidence may be
assumed in directions where it never existed, and may be placed
at periods which cannot be definitely determined by any indications which wve now have. Mr. Wallace, rightly we think,
hopes for light in the study of extinct fauna and flora in connection with living types; but there is need of great caution
in the way of inferences. In his later work he seems to think
the line of connection between continents has been north and
south, rather than east and west, and so is inclined to give up
the hypothetical continent of Lemuria.
Leaving these questions of physical and scientific interest,
let us look briefly at the present condition of these Islanders,
and see what has been done toward their moral and spiritual
elevation.
The Papuans are heathen, and have been left more undisturbed in their heathenism than any other large island on the
face of the globe. Until recently, though long the resort of
traders, and constantly passed by vessels going to Australia, and
frequently by those going to China, yet the only attempts at
1877.]
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