26 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

coming of voyagers of others races from the west, whileNew Zealand and Hawaii , in their secluded situations,preserved their primitive language in greater purity. Thevariations in their languages and the differences in theircustoms indicate that all the Polynesians have been mixedmore or less with other races.

The Papuans occupy the New Hebrides and theadjacent islands on the southwest. They are a black,frizzly-haired people, and are allied to the tribes ofAustralia and South Africa . They are generally smallin stature, and physically and intellectually inferiorto the Polynesians . Their language, unlike the Poly­ nesian , abounds in consonants and closed syllables, andis divided into so many dialects that Papuans on manyclosely adjacent islands cannot converse with each other.

The Fijis , who are situated between the Polynesians and the Papuans , are a mixed race, part Polynesian andpart Papuan , inferior to the Polynesians and superior tothe Papuans .

The Micronesians, who are situated north of theSamoas, are a mixed race, part Polynesian and partJapanese , with traces of Papuan . The Japanese elementis accounted for by the fact that Japanese voyagers haveoccasionally been storm-driven to great distances overthe ocean through the belt of Micronesian islands.“In 1814 the British brig Forester met with a Japan­ ese junk off the coast of California , with three living menand fourteen dead bodies on board. In December, 1832,a Japanese junk arrived at Hawaii with four of her crewliving.” The Micronesians are darker and of smaller