B 505: Lecture on the Aborigines of Australia and papers on Wirradhurrei dialect, 1837-1840 - Page 9
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and whether or not they were originally
in the same more or less the same so ignorant & uncivilized as they
are now, [a?] I regret that to all these
questions but little is no satisfactory answers can
be said of a satifactory kind given. We can
only throw out conjectures and hint at pos-
sibilities & probabilities concerning
their original descent,as they are utterly
without a history of their own with
scarcely a few a trace any fragments of tradition and
in as much as all ancient history is
silent about this part of the globe.
How all the Polynesian islans have been
peopled, how long they have been inhabited
and whence they originally came will [probably?]
always remain a difficult [?] problematical.
But there is a chain of these islands New
some smaller some greater which connects connecting this continent with Asia such as New Guinea,
Borneo and the islands of [Timor?] [on a aticular line still?] is not far from
the northern coast of this country and Timor is
not a great distance from the Malay [country?]
on the [Indian?] archipelago, or the Malay Archi-
pelago as it is sometimes called. Whether arrived
from necessity, when hounded by other tribes
(Margin)
The Celebes
The Phillipines
or nearer
[?] &
[a?] [aticular?]
line the
Island of
Timor Java
Sumatra the Malay