entirely supplanted the indigenous inhabitants if it ever
possessed any; and to spread 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.

CHAPTER II.

SINGAPORE.

(A SKETCH OF THE TOWN AND ISLAND AS SEEN DURING SEVERAL VISITS
FROM 1854 TO 1862.)

FEW places are more interesting to a traveller from Europe than
the town and island of Singapore, furnishing, as it does,