The Dutch travellers tell us, that the natives of the Island of Banda are remarkable for longevity; that they have seen one man at the age of 130, and numbers on the verge of that period; that in general they are indolent and inactive; and that while the men amuse themselves in sauntering abroad, the women are subjected to all the offices of labour at home. Dampier observes, that the original natives of the island of Timor, which is one of those most adjacent to New Holland, are a middling size, and of an erect form; that their limbs are slender, their visages long, their hair black and bristly, and their skin exceedingly black; that they are alert and dexterous, but superlatively indolent and slothful. He adds, however, that the inhabitants of the Bay of Laphno are, for the most part, tawny or copper-coloured.
In turning northward we find Manilla, and the other Philippine islands, of which the inhabitants are perhaps more intermixed than those of any other region in the universe, by the alliances they have formed with the Spaniards, the Indians, the Chinese, the Malabars, the blacks, &c. The negroes, who live in the rocks and woods of Manilla, differ entirely from the other inhabitants; of some the hair is short and frizly, like the negroes of Angola, and of others it is long. Their colour consists of various shades of black. According to Gemelli Carreri, there are some among them who, like the islanders mentioned by Ptolemy, have tails of the length of four or five inches. This traveller adds, that he has been assured, by Jesuits of undoubted testimony, that in the island of Mindoro, which is not far from Manilla, there is a race of men called _Manghians_, who have all tails of that length, and that some of these men had even embraced the Catholic faith; that they are of an olive colour, and have long hair.
Dampier says, that the inhabitants of the island of Mindanao, which is one of the principal and most southerly of the Philippines, are of a middling height, that their limbs are small, their bodies erect, their heads small, their visages oval, their foreheads flat, their eyes black and small, their noses short, their mouths moderate, their lips thin and red, their teeth black, their hair black and smooth, and their skin tawny, but of a brighter yellow than many of the other Indians; that in point of complexion the women have the advantage of the men; that they are also more shapely, and have features tolerably regular; that the men are in general ingenious and alert, but slothful, and addicted to thievery.