It is in the Malayan peninsula that another line of migration terminates. From New Caledonia to New Guinea a long line of islands--Tanna, Mallicollo, Solomon’s Isles, &c.--is occupied by a dark-skinned population of rude Papuas, with Tasmanian rather than Australian hair, _i.e._ with hair which is frizzy, crisp, curled, or mop-headed, rather than straight, lank, or only wavy. This comes from New Guinea; New Guinea itself comes from the Eastern Moluccas; _i.e._ from their darker populations. These are of the same origin with those of Timor; though the lines of migration are remarkably distinct. One is from the Moluccas to New Caledonia _viâ_ New Guinea; the other is _viâ_ Timor to Australia.
Both these migrations were early; earlier than the occupancy of Polynesia. The previous occupancy of Australia and New Guinea proves this; and the greater differences between the different sections of the two populations do the same.
III. _From Easter Island to the South-Eastern parts of Asia._--The northern, southern, and eastern extremities of Polynesia are the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, and Easter Island respectively. These took their occupants from different islands of the great group to which they belong; of which the Navigators’ Islands were, probably, the first to be peopled. The Radack, Ralik, Caroline, and Pelew groups connect this group with either the Philippines or the Moluccas; and when we reach these, we arrive at the point where the Papuan and Polynesian lines diverge. Just as the Papuan line overlapped or wound round Australia, so do the Micronesians and Polynesians form a circuit round the whole Papuan area.
As the languages, both of Polynesia and Micronesia, differ from each other far less than those of New Guinea, the Papuan Islands, and Australia, the separation from the parent stock is later. It is, most probably, through the Philippines that this third line converges towards the original and continental source of all three. This is the south-eastern portion of the Asiatic Continent, or the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.
The Malay of the Malayan Peninsula is an _inflected_ tongue as opposed to the Siamese of Siam, which belongs to the same class as the Chinese, and is monosyllabic. This gives us a convenient point to stop at.