The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-10-05
~o.I-ghc ITnvaiIan-.a an Oceanic
Race.

iting P,iyue>il and portions Of the In tian ATcElpe--
$50, destined from the Malays. who are not typioai.
but O myuZrel race II recent origin.
2nj There vas an ancient Oceanic civilization
before the appearance and rise Of the Malays-
3ri. There Is a strong probability, supported by
many facts, thst the Oceanic race had eomnlunica-
tion with the American race, if not q portion Of the
same race
EthncIosy, as it regards prehistoric man, must be
based in a great degree On geological research and
deduction. Fossil man and MS remains are the only
records Of the prehistoric past Discoveries and sci
entihc Investigations within the last half century,
have established the important truth that man has
been a resident upon the earth for q long, indefinite
period. As far as we can trace his remains in the
past, We fnd him in that geological period called the
posf pliOcias, and IL has been stated that his remains
have been found IN the tertiary hmestones Of Gibral
tar, in the valley OF the Zembesi in Africa. and in
SONORA, Mexico. Mans remains have been found in
Honolulu below the alluyIon, the volcanic layers
from the eruptOns of PuOwaina, and embedded sew
eral feet below the surface OF the hard coral on
which the superstrata Of lava and alluyion rest.
Vast changes, great catsclysms have taken place
on the earth's surface since the first indications Of
man. Whole races OF men and their anthropOids-
connecting links-sre now beneath the waters of the
ocean. The . lost link as well as the first man,
may be buried beneath the accumulated shells and
debris of ages in the deepest seas Vast continents
have subsidized below the level Of the ocean. while
others have been slowly elevated or upheayed by
causes now in existence and still operating. Islands
have teen formed, while others have disappeared. 1t
would be impossible 10 enumerate all the changes
clearly indicated, in the limits of this article; but IL
is highly probable that Northern Africa and Europe
were one continent, while the sea, now the desert OF
Zahara, rolled between the foot hills Of the Atlas and
Africa proper, since man has been evolved on our
planet.
And it is more than probable that an ancient con-
tinent existed where rolls the great South Pacific,
embracing the vast extent of ocean, now included in
our maps as g Oceanica,' - and that the same subsidized
after primitive mauhad developed the rudimeuts of
/ civilization. Whether the ancient continent existed
coevaI with Alaska, the aboriginal name of the
- $1,000 -ar &C - ~
whether the American continent rose as the ancient
continent subsidized, We have not sufficient data TO
determine. But the s~oundings between the Hawaiian
Islands and the coast Of California, and the sunken
mountain ridges that exist between the islands and
the coast, would indicate an ancient connection.
The elevated islands of the Pacifc-nOt coral
may be the submits of the lofty volcanic ranges of
the old continent, the Andes of q vanished world,
while the coral islands are built on the SUBMITS of
the submerged mountains and hills. This opinion is
sustained by several eminent biologists by powerful
and almost unanswerable reasoning, The old CONT
nent was probably thlnly inhabited by a partially
developed race. On the subsistence, the remains Of
this race, who did not attach themselves to the
American continent, were left on the mountain tops
or elevated islands. Is not this the origin of the
Hawaiian tradition of a deluge?
Whether the ruins of an ancient civilization in
the islands of the Pacific, are the remains of art con-
structed before, during, or since the subsistence OF
the continent, cannot now be ascertained, owing to
the shadow which rests over the u%nlettered prehis-
toric man that inhabited it. We will examine the
most plausible theory.
The submergence of the ancient continent may not
have been produced by any great and sudden cata-
clysm, although some violent shock may have sud-
denly severed it from the American continent. There
may have been long continued ages of slow subsi-
dence, in which man was developing an indigenous
civilization, the isolated remains Of which are found
in various islands of the Pacific. After the mountain
SUBMITS alone remained. these Ararats towering
over mans traditionary Goods, the inhabitants who
escaped the final catastrophe of submergence, were
crowded upon them, as well as such animals as
survived. Confined within q narrow compass, scare
iy of food was the necessary result, and most of the
animals were exterminated. Man, in the insular
position in which he was placed, the changed and
unfavorable circumstances by which he was sur
rounded, and the struggle for life in his crowded
situation, may have refrigerated so that the ciVihza-
ton of his ancestors was lost, and their monuments
came to be regarded with superstitious reverence.
The unfavorable circumstances continuing, rendered
his future development exceedingly slow. Probably
some portions of the old continent not wholly sub
merged, were abandoned by the inhabitants, as Easter
Island, of whose monuments | will speak hereafter.
There is affinity of race over this vast Oceanic
region. The complexion, physical development, moral
and mental constitution and craniology, mark their
unity of race.
There is another indication more powerful than
these, which is the unity of language. There is n
great Oceanic language as well as race, totally uns
connected with the languages of Asia. The Oceanic
language (not Malaysian) is as distinct from the
Semitic, Aryian and Turanic languages of Asia, as
the people are distinct in their physical, mental and
moral development.
The Oceanic language has more affinity with the
indigenous languages of the American Continent
than those of Asia, and the race has more of the
characteristics OF the typlc or seml-clvlllzed races OF
America than those of Asia.
Among the Oceanic dialects, that of Hawaii, lying
nearest the American continent, according to Baron
William Won Humboldt is the most archaic. 1t is
the most primitive and least mixed with foreign ele-
ments, showing the long absence of any communities
ton or contact with other races. AS we proceed
south and west of the Hawaiian group, we find a
greater mixture of foreign elements, and this in
creases in proportion to the ratio OF distance toward
the Indian Archipelago.
And here it may be well to remark that the name
by which the Polynesian or Oceanic language, has
been heretofore distinguished is a MISSIONER. The
Malay dialect, is not the Oceanic language. 1t is
ike the Malay race, mixed in its character and of
recent origin. The Malays are not a typical race, as
I have already observed in my first proposition. The
RIalays proper are freebooting wanderers from Ara
bia, the Malabar coast and Tahnga below the Sun
derbund in India, mixed with the Oceanic race,
which they found on Sumatra and Java. They were
not known as n separate people till about the begin
ming of the eighth century of the Christian Era,
when they got Il footing at Menang Kabao in Suma-
ira. They were unknown IN the Malay peninsula
till they founded Singapura in the year A. d. 1850,
and Malacca subsequently,. 1t was not until the
Portuguese under Albuquerque conquered Malacca in
1911, that the Malays dispersed and commenced
their conouests and settlements in the other islands
of the Archipelago.
The Malays were intruders in Sumatra and Java,
where they found the probable aboriginal Oceanic
race. They mixed with a portion of these, settled
on the coast, acquired some of their language, while
the great mass of the aboriginies were driven to the
mountains and hills, where they still exist and speak
a Corrupted dialect of the Oceanic language.
Comparative philologists have greatly humbugged
themselves and the public by that word 60 Malay
and it is time that a line of distinction should be
drawn between the Oceanic language and mOngrel
Malay.
The Hawaiian language is nearest the primitive,
and the purest of the dialects of the great Oceanic
language; and this purity has been preserved be-
cause after the subsistence of the ancient continent,
it was long ages before they had intercourse with
any other people or any accession of population,