aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

COCHIN- CHINA TO SINGAPOEB. 187
After the lapse of a few hundred years, they were again
conquered by the Chinese and their allies,
the conquerors in
considerable numbers remaining in the country, softening
the skin to a light copper, and straightening the hair, through
intermixture in their social relationships. These causes,
with various climatic conditions, constituted the Malay race,
which about six thousand years ago were in their palmy
periods. Their language, ever flexible, shows plainly that it
has been acted upon both by the monosyllabic Chinese and
the Sanscrit. The very word " Malay " is Sanscrit.
Inheriting Mongolian energy, and naturally sailors, these
Malayans began at a very early period to emigrate, and colonize
islands to the south and east. The north-east monsoons
would take them first to Sumatra ; and then, considering
the oceanic currents and prevailing winds, they would gradually
drift southward and to the east. Evidently the moundbuilders,
and the descendants of these, the North-American
Indians, were largely Malayan in origin.
problem admits of ethnic demonstration.
THE MALAYANS A]VIERICA-WARD.
This long-unsolved
While cruising across the Pacific, Capt. Blythen pointed
out to us, on his North and South Pacific charts, sixty islands
reported and located by navigators some two hundred
years since, that have sunk from human sight. Some of
these were said to have been inhabited. Cataclysms and
convulsions were ever common along the volcanic
zones of
the tropics. A vast continent, something like the New Atlantis
spoken of by Plato, was submerged in the Pacific, save
the mountainous peaks, several thousands of years ago.
Such of the aborigines as survived, upon the mountain-summits
and high lands, intermingled maritally with roving,
eastward-bound Malays. They crossed from island to island
in crafts corresponding somewhat to their present prahus.
Traversing the island-dotted waters through Polynesia, they
reached the western coast of South America.
Their conti-