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"Australasia" by Alfred Russel Wallace

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AUG. 2, 1879.] THE ACADEMY. 77 SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1879. takes the opportunity of giving in some detail the author that the Dutch claim to the western a clear explanation, aided by sections, of the half of New Guinea is "well supported," No. 378, New Series. character and mode of formation of the gold being founded merely on a series of coast deposits, and also of that " desert sandstone" surveys, and on their claim to suzerainty over which covers such vast tracts in the interior, the chiefs of some small neighbouring islands. though he does not account for the absence It must have been by an oversight that, in of fossils from this formation. Again, after his sketch of the history of Java, Mr. Wallace explaining and speculating on the many makes no mention of the period of English remarkable characteristics of the flora, he occupancy under Sir Stamford Raffles, to describes the peculiar plants which form the whose enlightened administration the island different varieties of " bush" and "scrub," owes so much, and whose Reports are still so thus enabling the reader to whom these terms valuable. We find, too, occasional repeti­ have been hitherto mere names to form a tions, and a few inconsistent statements. For comparatively vivid conception of their ap­ instance, at p. 569, we read that " the native pearance, and of the difficulties of Australian rat, which entered New Zealand with the LITERATURE. travelling. Maories, is now being extirpated by the Nor­ Mr. Wallace gives all the necessary sta­ way variety;" but we had read, on p. 559, Stanford's Compendium of Geography and tistics of population, trade, revenue, educa­ that the native rat has been so completely Travel: Australasia. Edited and extended tion, and political constitution, which tell, " destroyed that no speoimen of it is known by Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.G.S., &c. With with an eloquence of their own, the wonderful to exist, and it is therefore uncertain whether an Ethnological Appendix by A. H. Keane, tale of rapid growth and of prosperity; but it was a true rat or some allied animal;" M.A.I. (Stanford.) he might, we think, with advantage have while its having been brought there originally Mr. Wallace's Australasia embraces, besides added some notice of the conditions of poli­ by the natives is, we are now told, only a Australia and New Zealand, the islands of tical life and of society in these colonies. "tradition." Again, at p. 498, Mr. Wallace the Malay Archipelago, including the Philip­ In his description of the various islands of argues the great antiquity of the Polynesian pines, the Papuan Islands, and all the vast the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and of the race from their ignorance of the art of making region hitherto known as Oceania or Poly­ people who inhabit them, Mr. Wallace has pottery, "its practice being so simple and at nesia. If all these are to be grouped together again combined much pleasant reading with the same time so useful, that, once known, it under a single name, perhaps "Australasia" a record of statistics for reference, dwelling would certainly never have been lost ; " is the best, for that name has generally occasionally on points of more than usual but on the next page he admits that, in the included the most important portions of the interest. In a sketch of the career of the progress of migration from island to island, area, and recals besides the old "Terra Aus­ late Rajah Brooke, which, though an episode, the art " might have been lost for want tralis;" but Mr. Wallace's argument for its is yet by no means out of place in a notice of of suitable materials." That the Polynesians use, that the region in question is "geo­ the Malay Islands, Mr. Wallace bears cordial should have heen so ignorant of pottery is the graphically a southern extension of Asia," testimony to the value of a work which, as more mysterious, in that the Samoan group, has, as regards the greater part of the area shown by its continued success under the the point from or through which the last embraced, but a remote geological application. present ruler, has now borne the test of time. great migratory movement probably passed to Readers of Mr . Wallace's former books are While dwelling on the peculiar habits and the eastward, was not without intercourse familiar with the important qualifications customs of the Pacific races, Mr. Wallace with Fiji, which produces perhaps the best which he brings to his present work-the might, we venture to think, have devoted a pottery in the Pacific. The art would, faculty of close observation, of ingenious little more space to their political institutions, therefore, seem rather to have lapsed. Mr. reasoning, and of clear and intelligent descrip­ which, though now dying out, were in many Wallace meanwhile appositely reminds us tion. He has also the advantage of a personal of the groups very elaborate, and also to their that "we cannot measure the status of acquaintance with some of the remoter places religious systems. These matters, too, if of less human advancement merely by progress in and people of whom he writes. The countries value than linguistic or physiological evidence, the mechanical arts." His facts and statistics described resolve themselves naturally into two have also their bearing on those ethnolo­ are not invariably correct. Thus he is mistaken distinct groups; the one composed of the gical questions which are di.cussed at length. in speaking of cannibalism as still practised in British colonies of Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Wallace, however, gives his opinion as to Fiji, and we fear he overstates by at least one to which one-half of the volume is devoted, the the effect on the Malays of Islam and of third the population of that group when he other a vast assemblage of islands inhabited Christianity respectively. " Islam," he tells puts them at 150,000. Nor, therefore, can there by native races. These, speaking generally, us, " has deprived even these of all higher well be "50,000 children attending school." comprise on the west the Malay Archipelago, aims in life, reducing their pursuits mainly to His remarks on the decline of the native mostly co-extensive with the great Eastern navigation and piracy ;" while, when they races are somewhat contradictory ; thus at Empire of the Dutch; then New Guinea and become Christians, they merely" abstain from p. 530 he ascribes it to the action of the the neighbouring islands, where we find the shaving their heads, or filing down their teeth, missionaries, while at p. 505 he attributes the nucleus of the dark Papuan or Melanesian and drink wines and spirits." With these increase of the populalion on Niue to the fact race ; while over the vast region farthereast­ views as to the influence of the higher that there are no Europeansthere except the ward lie scattered the homes of the fairer creeds, he may naturally consider the older missionaries. Polynesians. Mr. Wallace has succeeded ones as hardly worth recording. Though Mr. Wallace writes of the Polynesians that well in the twofold object he no doubt had wriling dispassionately about the Dutch, we " their ceremonies are polluted by no human in view, viz., to combine a compendium gather that Mr. Wallace thinks highly of sacrifices; cannibalism with them has never of statistical information with a " read­ their colonial administration, and it is probable beoome a habit." We fear that the history able" account of the regions described. In that their merits in this respect are hardly of Hawaii militates against the first of these his account of Australia, especially, we are understood in England; nor do we always assertions, while the Marquesas and even struck with the skill and effect with which he realise the great extent and value of their New Zealand would lead us to qualify the has carried out this purpose. Thus, in dis- Eastern dominions, as these are brought home second. Among the Polynesians as known cussing the geology of that country, we have to us by Mr. Wallace's map and statistics. to us, cannibalism was certainly exceptional, in the first place a good map, by which we True, much of the territory appropriated has and was never perhaps so ingrained a habit find that the formations, not only of the never been explored, much less occupied as among the Papuans; but the distinction ontire coast, but of more than half the or administered; and such appropriations between an inveterate habit and a constant interior of this great island, which almost would perhaps not be recognised by any other practice is a fine one! To the general reader equals Europe in extent, have already Western Power which happened greatly to Mr. Wallace's use of the term" Malay" race been ascertained. Then, after some interesting desire the territory in question. The validity and language, now including and now ex­ speculations as to the former extent and of such annexations is a wide and a delicate cluding,ashedoes,such sections as the Javanese direction of the Australian land, the author question. We cannot, however, agree with or the Dyaks,will, we fear, be confusing. A 78 THE ACADEMY. [AUG. 2, 1879. few discrepancies occur between statements told us more about their language than that in the text, and others in the ethnological it is " highly peculiar," and a cloier investi­ appendix contributed to this as to the other gation of the whole question is very desirable. volumes of the series by Mr. A. H.
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