5. Malay variety. Brown colour ; hair black, soft, curled, and abundant ; head moderately narrow, and forehead slightly arched ; nose full and broad towards the "apex ; large mouth ; upper jaw rather prominent; the features, when viewed in profile, projecting and distinct. The inhabitants of the peninsula of Malacca, of the South Sea, Ladrone, Philippine, Molucca, and Sunda islands, are arranged under this division.
As the Americans in their national cha racters hold the middle place between that middle variety of the human race, which we have called the Caucasians, and one of the extremes, viz. the Mongo lians; so the Malay forms the cbnnecting link between the Caucasian and the Ethiopian, The name of Malay is given to it, because most of the tribes which it includes, as those which inhabit the In dian islands near Malacca, the Sandwich, Society, and Friendly islands, also those of Madagascar, and thence to Easter island, use the Malay language.
The inhabitants of such various and distant countries may reasonably be ex pected to differ considerably in elegance of form, and in other circumstances of bodily organization. Hence some have even described two races in the island of Otaheite ; one of light colour, tall stature, and countenance scarcely distinguishable from the European : the other of mode rate stature, with the colour and counte nance of the Mulatto, crisp hair, &c. The latter, therefore, constitutes an inter mediate gradation, passing towards the inhabitants of the western islands of the Pacific Ocean. And of these the men of the New Hebrides form a link of connec tion with those of New Guinea and New Holland, which are so very similar to the Ethiopian variety, that they might be arranged without impropriety under that division.
The varieties which we have just stated are so many proofs of that pliancy so wisely bestowed by nature on the human constitution, to enable it to adapt itself to every clime. Thus the goodness of the Creator appears, in forming the whole world for man, and in opening to him every opportunity of enlarging his habitation, and multiplying his scientific acquirements ; instead of confining him, like the interior animals, to a bounded range. He is completely unrestrained in the choice of his dwelling, by conside rations of air, temperature, &c. ; and consequently far exceeds all other parts of animated creation in extension over the surface of the globe. Gmelin expe rienced cold of 126° below 0 of Fahren heit's scale, at Jeniseik, in Siberia. The Greenlander lives, and follows his occu pations, where the vegetable creation can no longer subsist, and where the snow bunting, with the polar fox and bear, half frozen, and perishing with hunger, hide themselves in holes of the ground. On the contrary, in Senegal, the ther mometer mounts sometimes to 117° above 0 ; and a natural warmth of 125° has been experienced. In short, man lives in every part of the known world (except ing some unexplored northern countries, and a few remote southern islands), from Greenland to Terra del Fuego, from Spitzbergen to the Cape, from the 80th degree of north to the 58th of south lati tude.