CHAPTER V.
BRITISH DEPENDENCIES IN THE MALAYAN PENINSULA.—THE OCEANIC STOCK AND ITS DIVISIONS.—THE MALAY, SEMANG, AND DYAK TYPES.—THE ORANG BINUA.—JAKUNS.—THE BIDUANDA KALLANG.—THE ORANG SLETAR.—THE SARAWAK TRIBES.—THE NEW ZEALANDERS.—THE AUSTRALIANS.—THE TASMANIANS.
Our isolated and small settlements in the Malayan Peninsula,[63] the depôt at Labuan, Sir James Brooke's Rajahship of Sarawak, New Zealand, the joint protectorate of the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti, Australia, and Van Dieman's Land, bring us to a new division of the human species, which is conveniently called the Oceanic.
Its divisions and subdivisions are as follows:—
| { | Protonesians | { | Micronesians | |||
| { | Amphinesians | Polynesians | Polynesians | |||
| Malagasi | Proper. | |||||
| Oceanic | ||||||
| { | Papuans | |||||
| Kelænonesians | Australians | |||||
| Tasmanians. | ||||||
Our settlements are limited to the Protonesian, Proper Polynesian, Australian, and Tasmanian sections: and we have no political authority over any of the Malagasi, Micronesians, or Papuans.
With the exception of the occupants of the Malayan Peninsula, all the Oceanic population occupy islands. This explains the term Oceanic.
Their distribution is as remarkable as their extension. The Amphinesian[64] stream of population, originating in the peninsula of Malacca, is continued through Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Philippines, Lord North's Island, Sonsoral, the Pelew group, the Caroline and Marianne Isles, the Ralik and Radack chains, the Kingsmill group and the Gilbert and Scarborough Islands, to the Navigators', Society, Friendly, Marquesas, Sandwich, and New Zealand groups; having become Micronesian rather than Protonesian, after passing the Philippines, and Proper Polynesian rather than Micronesian, after passing the Scarborough and Gilbert Archipelagoes. In this course it passes round New Guinea and Australia; in each of which islands the population is Kelænonesian.
The Malay of the Malacca peninsula is no longer either monosyllabic or uninflectional, although[205] in immediate contact with the southern dialects of the Siamese. Hence, the transition is abrupt; although by no means conclusive as to any broad and trenchant line of ethnological demarcation.