VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS. 941

Timor and the Molucca iflands would conftitute the fifth remove. Unfortunatelythree of the intermediate gradations have not yet been fufficiently examined to juftifyany pofitive affertion refpecting them, I lhall therefore limit my obfervations to anexpofition of the refult of my experiments on the Malays of Timor, and the neighbour-ing iflands Pooloo Rotti, Soombawa, Semawoo, Macaflar, Ende, and Solor. Offimilar defcent, inhabiting the fame climate, fubject to the fame laws and cuftoms, andfubfifting on fimilar aliment, all of thefe may, I conceive, be claffed together withoutany fenfible error ; and with thefe likewife fome Chinefe, who for centuries eftablifhedon thefe iflands from father to fon, may be looked upon as indigenous.

The Malays are not the aborigines of the iflands of the great archipelago of Afia.Brutal and fanguinary conquerors, they invaded them at a period of which hiftory oreven tradition preferves no recolleftion. Eftablifhed on the fhores of the fea, they arecollefted together in numerous and regular focieties, and inhabit towns or villages ofgreat or fmall extent. Subject to Kings pofleffed of different extenfion of authority,and, by their commerce with Europeans, raifed to a tolerable degree of civilizationthey exercife different arts, addict themfelves to agriculture, and the care of flocks, tofifhery, trade, and navigation, as fully as their natural apathy and defire of gain allow.Offspring of the ferocious warriors of Malacca, they preferve the language of their an-ceftors, their manners, cuftoms, laws, and religion, but, by long fubjeftion to thePortugueze and Dutch , they have happily loft a portion of their original ferocity.

Fifty-fix individuals of this generation were fubje&ed to my experiments. In themwas noticed ; that between eighteen and thirty years of age ftrength encreafes fo as atthe latter nearly to double the degree exerted at the former period ; that it augmentsbut trivially from thirty to forty ; and that it gradually diminifhes from forty to fifty,and from fifty to fixty. Thefe experiments moreover gave for the mean degree ofmanual ftrength 58,7°; for that of the reins 16,2°.,

SECT. IV. — 1 Experiments on the ftrength of the French .

With favages, or thofe but {lightly civilized, fuch as thofe of which we have fpoken,dynanometrical obfervations are more corre&ly obtained in a general point of view thancan ever be the cafe among Europeans. Our numerous population, the diverfity ofprofeffions followed by the individuals of which it is compofed, our habits of life, aliment,&c. prevent any fair comparifon ; for in brder to find the mean ftrength of a nation,of the French for example, fuch a multitude of experiments would be neceflary onfubjects taken from all claffes of fociety, as to render a juft conclufion next to impof-fible. Not fo with hordes of favages, efpecially thofe of New Holland and Diemen’sLand : in thefe parts the population is fo thin that the moft numerous tribes confiftfcarcely of fifty individuals ; and here all difference of rank, exercife, and food is un-known : with fimilar wants and fimilar refources all have the fame labours to follow,the fame privations to undergo, and indulge in the fame enjoyments. This uniformity,conftantly exifting through every ftage of life, occafions a phyfical and moral fimilitude.in thefe individuals of which no idea can be formed in focial life. Hence I do nothefitate, notwithftanding the fmall number of obfervations made by me on the inha-bitants of Diemen’s Land and New Holland, nay, even of Timor, to look upon the-refults as much more precife than a more numerous feries of experiments made onEuropean nations could poffibly be. I am therefore far from difpofed to deduce anyconfequence, from the few dynanometrical experiments made on the Englilh and.French , decifive of the actual ftrength of thefe two people. I merely prefent them as

affording.;