Origin of the natives

The inhabitants of Java seem to owe their origin to the same stock, from which most of the islands lying to the south of the eastern peninsula of Asia appear to have been first peopled. This stock is evidently Tartar, and has, by its numerous and wide spreading branches, not only extended itself over the Indian Archipelago, but over the neighbouring continent. “To judge “from external appearance, that is to say, from shape, size, and feature,” observes Dr. Francis Buchanan, in his Notices on the Birman Empire, “there is one very extensive nation that inhabits the east of Asia. It “includes the eastern and western Tartars of the Chinese authors, the “Calmucs, the Chinese, the Japanese, and other tribes inhabiting what is “called the Peninsula of India beyond the Ganges, and the islands to “the south and east of this, as far at least as New Guinea.”—“This “nation, “adds the same author, “may be distinguished by a short, squat, “robust, fleshy stature, and by features highly different from those of an “European. The face is somewhat in shape of a lozenge, the forehead “and chin being sharpened, whilst at the cheek bones it is very broad. “The eyebrows, or superciliary ridges, in this nation, project very little, “and the eyes are very narrow, and placed rather obliquely in the head, the “external angles being the highest.