Note 10 — PART I

The Negroes [i.e., Negritos]10 are in all probability the original inhabitants of these islands, as they appear at some remote epoch to have been of almost all the eastern archipelago. The tide of Malay emigration, from whatever cause and part it proceeded, has on some islands entirely destroyed them. Others, as New Guinea, it has not yet reached, a circumstance which seems to point to the west as the original cradle of the Malay race. In the Phillippines, it has driven them from the coast to the mountains, which by augmenting the difficulty of procuring subsistence, may have much diminished their numbers. Still, however, they form a distinct, and perhaps a more numerous class of men than is generally suspected. They have in the present day undisturbed possession of nearly ⅔ds of the island of Luzon, and of others a still larger proportion.