The secret of the Pacific; a discussion of the origin of the early civilisations of America, the Toltecs, Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, and their predecessors; and of the possibilities of Asiatic influence thereon

Front matter

COATLIQUE, THE AZTEC WOMAN GOD. (See page 102.)

Frontispiece.

A DISCUSSION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE EARLY CIVILISATIONS OF AMERICA, THE TOLTECS, AZTECS, MAYAS, INCAS, AND THEIR PREDECESSORS ; AND OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ASIATIC INFLUENCE THEREON

Preface

In regarding archaeology some curious reflections may arise in the mind of the student. What is the true age of man's stone -building art? We seem to find overlapping rather than evolutive stages therein, as if man had suddenly learned to build pyramids and temples from some Instructor, rather than by the process of evolution. Again, we may find our thoughts inclining to the reflection that there may have been long, unknown periods or cycles of civilisation on this globe, in relation to which the few thousand years of known or conjectured history are a mere last chapter. We might be tempted to think that man, as we know him, is the remains of a more perfect civilisation, or part of such a cycle, working his way up again, rather than being a pioneer of the race. There is no unreason in such a supposition. We are not bound to accept the finality of evolution, as at present conceived, either in the biological or the cultural sphere ; and, indeed, the near future may bring some strong modification of it.

As regards the world's very ancient ruins, shall we ever discover some exact mechanical process for determining their age? Will it one day be possible by some hitherto unsuspected process or attribute to assign the number of

PREFACE sunrises or earth-revolutions and sun-cycles that have passed since a given wall was erected or a given stone taken from its quarry bed? May not alternate light and darkness have left some calculable impression on " scarped cliff and quarried stone " ?

One poignant reflection there is : that man could build such beautiful dreams in sculptured stone as in all ages he has, and yet be so barbarous to his kind. Temples have generally been synonymous with cruelties and sacrifice. Furthermore, Masonry, whether as an Art, whether as an Order, presents itself to us mainly as a great Pretension, which embodies little of the milk of human kindness, but which rather separates man into selfish sects. It is after the lapse of time, when temples and palaces have become monuments, that we revere them — the perpetuation in stone of sentiment and faith.

As to the problem of the ancient American civilisations, it is an old one, a mysterious one, and certainly not to be explained with ease, either one way or the other. There are many factors to be taken into account as concerns their origin ; and even to connect such origin with some ancient cycle of civilisation or lost continent is not outside the field of admissible conjecture ; as if both their cultures and those of the Old World were offshoots of some parent stock, long since buried in the mists of age and change.

Chapter I Page

WHAT IS THE SECRET? . . . * . Ij

Unknown empires — The lure of universalism — On the trails of Cortes and Pizarro — Arizona and the Cliff Dwellers — The wonderlands of Mexico and Peru — The " Unknown God " of America — The marvel of Easter Island — From Peru to Egypt — From Mexico to Asia — Biological and cultural aspects — The speechless anthropoid — Man's ancestor in America — Across Behring Strait — Geographical similarity of America and Asia — Man's orginal cradle-land — The " Stones of the Sanctuary " — The Aztecs and the Incas — Chinese origin ? — Nothing new under the sun.

Chapter II

Asiatic and American enigmas — The fault of topography — Preservation of ruins — Wilful destruction — Universal attributes of primitive man — Evolution of the pyramid — Stout denials of connection — Indigenous culture — Widespread cradle-lands — From China to Peru — The theory of imported origin — Opinion of Humboldt — Analogies with Egypt — Yucatan and Ceylon — Central America and Java — The Maya Arch — No real arch in America — The "lost ten tribes" — Lord Kingsborough's work — Mexico the origin of Egyptian art ?— Across Behring Straits — Junks from China and Japan — Kublai Khan — Personal impressions — The Asiatic Eskimo — Polynesian influence — Easter Island — Yucatan as the lost Atlantis — Similarities of art — Evolution of Aztec and Inca art — The universal Sun God.

Chapter III Page

THE TRAVELLER'S POINT OF VIEW . . . -49

A few points of geography — Coast of North and South America — The great Cordillera — Ice and fire— Comparison with Bible lands — Seats of the ancient civilisations — Vast distances in prehistoric America — Arizona and California — Mexico, its people and railways — The republics of Central America — Good and bad qualities — Panama — Colombia and Ecuador — Peru, its people and mountains — Varied national traits — Chile and the Trans-Andine railway — Mongolian immigration in South America — A brief survey of the ancient ruins — Hints to travellers — Climate and equipment.

Chapter IV

The Eskimos — An important region — Behring Sea culturearea — A link between Asia and America — Language — Art — Mongol origin — Boats and navigation — The Aleutians — Customs and religions of the Eskimos — The road from Asia — Siberia — Neolithic man — The Hydah Indians — The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway — Bancroft's description— Hydah carvings — Totem poles — Canoes — Inter-continental navigation — The Nootkas — Native customs — The Apaches — California to-day — Behring Strait — The " Miocene Bridge" — Other early land connections with America — Passing reflections.

Chapter V

Western America — Colorado, Utah, and Arizona — California — The great American desert — The Rocky Mountains — Old and new civilisations — The Puye ruins — Mesa Verde National Park — Remarkable structures — Unique situations — Subterranean chambers — Cliff temples and palaces — Connection with the Aztecs — Creation legends — Native story of evolution — The Pueblos — Pueblo pottery — Prayers for rain — Delta lands — Prehistoric irrigation channels — The Swastika in America — Casas Grandes — Frontier with Mexico.

Chapter VI Page

EARLY MEXICO — TOLTECS AND AZTECS . . -93

Character of early Mexico — Bloodthirsty religion — The problem of its origin — The Toltecs — Picture-writing — Early history — Mexican mural remains — The Teocallis — Stone of Sacrifice — Awful women-goddesses— Analogy with Babylon — Pyramids of the sun and the moon — Teotihuacan — Pottery and acoustics — Other pyramids — Cholula and Papantla — Remarkable structures of Monte Alban — The Zapotecs — Sculptured halls of Mitla— Ruins in Guerrero and Tehuantepec — Unexplored territory — The dawn of a literature — Mexican calendar — Aztec religion — The prayer of Nezahualcoyotl to the Creator, the "Unknown God."

Chapter VII

THE MAYA WONDERLAND . . . . . Il8

The civilisation of the Mayas — Yucatan and Chiapas — Age of Maya culture — Arrival of Cortes — Types of architecture — Pyramids and galleries — The magnificence of Palenque — The beau-relief — Temples and crosses — The cross in prehistoric America — Yucatan millionaires — Henequen and oppression — Rubber and slavery — Ruins of Uxmal — The Maya Arch — Astonishing architectural forms — Chac-mol figures — Egypt and Mexico — Le Plongeon's theories — The mastodon in stone — Prehistoric hydraulics — The famous Cenotes — Sacrifices of virgins — Yucatan and the Ganges.

Chapter VIII

Guatemala — British Honduras — Honduras — Salvador — Nicaragua — Costa Rica — Difficult topography — Pilpil civilisation — Migration from Mexico to Central America — Ancient sculptures and reliefs — Farthest limit of Maya culture — Chac-mol sculpture— Ruins of Quirigua — Beautiful stelae — Ancient city — Terraces and plazas — Huge carved stones — Hieroglyphs — The "Greek" pattern- Santa Lucia Cozumahualpa — Numerous ruins — Expedition of Cortes — Three pyramids — The Quiches — The famous Popol Vuh — Story of the Creation and the Deluge in prehistoric America — Ruins of Copan — Pyramids, ramparts, and terraces — Metal-craft of Chiriqui — Reading the hieroglyphs — Junction between Mayas and Incas — Ecuador and Columbia — Mysterious conquerors.

Chapter IX The Incas — Children Of The Sun . . . 155

The fascination of Peru — Means of travel— Some of the wonders of the world— Remarkable building sites — Topographical situations — Climatic influences — The coast zone — The Incas and the pre-Incas — The Andes — Extent of Inca Empire — The Quechua language — Relative ages — The Son of the Sun — A "virgin birth" — Duration of Inca Empire — The famous royal roads — Lake Titicaca — The ruins at Cuzco — The " navel " of the empire — Sacsaihuaman — Inca stone masonry — Fortress of Ollantaytambo — Intihuana and Pisac — Astronomical pillars — The throne of the sun — The Amazon forest — Unfathomable Tiahuanako — Transport of monoliths — The " Unknown God " — Prayer to the Creator.

Chapter X Peru — The Land Of Enigmas . . . . 1 75

Northern Peru — Quito — Huaraz and Cajamarca — Pre-Inca remains — The Upper Mararlon — Castle of Chavin — Subterranean chambers and monoliths — The Gentiles — The ancient fortresses — The Andenes — Former population — Ruins of Huanuco Vie jo — Beautiful stone doorways — The Inca palace and fortress — Ancient town — Analogy with Egyptian structure ? — Cliff-towers and graves — Caves and mummy-cellars — The ancient ruins of the coast region — Pachacamac — The only example of columns — The Chiinus and ruins of Chan Chan — Incas and pre-Incas — Copper tools — Roofs — Embalming the dead — The Huacas — Mummy-hunting — Peruvian pottery seven thousand years old!? — Beautiful ceramic art — Asiatic origin ?— Mongolian ancestors — Analogies with China — Mysterious unread hieroglyphs.

Chapter XI

A remarkable social system — The Inca land laws — " Superior to all Christian nations " — Small holdings in early Peru — The land for the (prehistoric) people ! — No beggary permitted — Common ownership of natural resources — The guano — Public water-rights — No monopolies allowed — Inca hydraulics — Wonderful irrigation system — The Andenes — Socialistic agriculture — Neighbourly assistance — No Tammanyism ! — Help for widows — Tax payments in goods and labour — Boots instead of rates — Hallelujah — Public granaries — Precautions against famine — Corn reserves — Scientific colonisation — The fall of the Inca Socialism — Hints for Britain.

Chapter XII Comparisons And Contradictions . . . 207

From Asia to America ? — No iron or vehicles — Stone tools in early American art — Remarkable stone-shaping methods — Indefatigable architects — Massive work — General characteristics — Moving the monoliths — Work on the high plateaux — Engineering knowledge in prehistoric America— The Pueblo ruins — Early explorers — Age of the Mexican and Peruvian ruins — No origin from Asia ? — Cord-holders in masonry — Native gallows — Similarity of ground plans — Peru and Mexico compared — Columns in early architecture — The potter's wheel non-existent — Beautiful textile work — Native dyes — Killing home industries — Prehistoric metallurgy — Jewel-craft — Oresmelting at Potosi — Admirable goldsmith's work — Abundance of gold — Spurious antiquities — Methods of historical record — Hieroglyphs and the qaipos — Analogies with China, Tibet, and Tahiti.

Chapter XIII Conflicting Testimonies ..... 23o

Further evidence — Linguistic affinities — Analogies of signs and symbols, handicrafts and myths— Imported or indigenous ? — Mongolian affinities — The Eskimos — Great variety of habitat — Mixed Spanish blood — Resemblance of Mexicans and Peruvians to Japanese — The Chinaman at home in Peru — Language offers no proof — Chinese and Otomi — Possible prehistoric immigration from Asia — Kublai Khan — Affirmative facts — Humboldt and the Mexican and Asiatic calendars — Babylonian - Greek imitation — Similarities in ornament — The " Greek " ornament universal — The " lost ten tribes " — The Swastika ; widespread occurrence — Oriental symbols — The cross in prehistoric America — The four ages of the world in Asia and Peru — Mesopotamia and Peruvian river-craft — Rameses III. and Lake Titicaca.

Chapter XIV

A speculative voyage — Stepping-stones to Asia — Easter Island and others — Great stone images — The " wicked giants" of Genesis — Possible connection between Peru and Mexico — With Polynesia — Great stone houses — The Archaic Noah — Size of the Colossi — Other remains- Tablets and hieroglyphs — Analogy with Tiahuanako in Bolivia — Are they phallic emblems ? — Log of the Flora — Dimensions of the images.

Chapter XV

Strange migrations — The Polynesians and others — The Papuans and Malaysians — Mystery of their origin — The Caucasians — Origin of the Polynesians — Clever navigators — Original home — Long sea journeys — Polynesian ship-builders — Mythology — Decline — Character — Pitcairn Island — Tahiti — The Marquesas — Affinity with early America — Stone images — Stone platforms — Art — Tonga Islands — Megalithic remains — Caroline Islands — Lele and Ponape — Astonishing prehistoric structures — Metalanim — A Pacific Venice — Yap and other remains — Great basalt prisms — Metalanim harbour — Lele — The breakwater — The Marianas— Stone structures.

Chapter XVI

A Pacific Atlantis — India and Java — Early Malaysians — Early Polynesians — Strange voyages — Connection with Peru and Mexico — Timor — Delhi — Tasmania — The Malay Archipelago — " Out of the sea " — A wide-scattered people — Malay sailors— Hindu ruins in Java — Boro Budor — Indian influence — Angkor Thorn — The Khmers of Cambodia — Astonishing ancient temple and ruins— Brama faces — The Ainos of Japan — The hot-pot of Asia — The Mongolian in America — Kublai Khan — Mongolia — Tibet and Peru— The Veddahs of Ceylon — Australia's part in the secret — Caucasian fragments — Mankind's vast antiquity — Ancient land connections — Elevation and subsidences of Pacific shores — Japan — The Andes — Markham's theory — The Funafuti borings — Darwin and Murray — The "subsidence " theory — The new Stone Age — The inexplicable problem.

Chapter XVII

The voice of mythology — A new science — Analogous romances — The psalms of the Mexicans and Peruvians — The Creation myth of the Hydahs — The " redeemer " of the Nootkas — The copper canoe — Emblems of the Sun God — Flood story of the Okanagans — Scomalt — Deluge story of the Melanesians — Qat the hero— Prayer of the voyager — General belief in a Supreme Being — Sun-worship — Roman Catholic mythology — Aboriginal belief in immortality — Curious customs — The couvarde — Phallism — "Indecent" Inca images — Singular custom in Peru — Scarab-worship of the South American Chaco — Native veracity — Travellers' veracity — Missionaries' good faith — Flood stories— The Book of Enoch and the Deluge — Theosophy and the Central American ruins.

Chapter XVIII

Anthropoid to architect — Necessity for more research — A many-sided subject — More light required — What is our foundation ? — Teachings of archaeology — History repeats itself — A dim and distant stage — Retrospect of human movements— The great antiquity of mankind — An endless argument — The " All-Father "—A universal culture in remote times — Babel and the Flood — A golden age — A Universal Texture.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COATLIQUE, THE AZTEC WOMAN GOD . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

RUINS OF CHICHEN ITZA, " THE HOUSE OF THE NUNS,"

RUINS OF MITLA, SOUTHERN MEXICO . . -3%

RUINS OF QUIRIGUA, GUATEMALA. STELA WITH HIERO- GLYPHICS . . . . . .46

LAKE TITICACA, SOUTHERN PERU . . . 58

THE "SEAT OF THE INCA," PERU . . .64

A TOTEM POLE, NORTH-WEST BRITISH COLUMBIA . 72

INDIANS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND . . . 76

RUINS OF THE CLIFF-DWELLERS: CLIFF PALACE . 83

RUINS OF THE CLIFF-DWELLERS, AND POTTERY . . 90

TOLTEC PYRAMID OF THE SUN AT TEOTIHUACAN . 96

THE AZTEC STONE OF SACRIFICE .... IO3

OMECIHUATL, MEXICAN WOMAN GOD . . . I05

RUINS OF MITLA, HALL OF THE " GRECQUES," SOUTHERN

RUINS OF MITLA, HALL OF THE COLUMNS . .110

THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE . . . . 11$

MEXICAN PICTURE-WRITING . . . . 115

Chapter I What Is The Secret?

Unknown empires — The lure of universalism — On the trails of Cortes and Pizarro — Arizona and the Cliff Dwellers — The wonderlands of Mexico and Peru — The " Unknown God" of America— The marvel of Easter Island — From Peru to Egypt — From Mexico to Asia — Biological and cultural aspects — The speechless anthropoid — Man's ancestor in America — Across Behring Strait — Geographical similarity of America and Asia — Man's original cradle-land — The "Stones of the Sanctuary" — The Aztecs and the Incas — Chinese origin ? — Nothing new under the sun.

What do we mean by the Secret of the Pacific ?

Set between the world's mightiest oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, lies that greatest of all islands— the twin -continents of America. A great mystery still shrouds these twin-continents, a riddle still unread, for whose solution the world may be said to have waited four hundred years. What is this mystery?

History would have us believe that these great seas had roared defiant, uncrossed by man — with the exception, grudgingly admitted, of some shadowy Northmen from Europe in 983 — until the end of the fifteenth century A.D., and that these great continents, until then, had been unvisited from the outside world since time began. Yet, scattered for thousands of miles throughout the forests and deserts of these twin -continents are the remains of civilised empires which once flourished there : the ruined temples, palaces, pyramids, and habitations of peoples and nations who arose, fell, and rose again, ages before the caravels of the Vikings and the Conquistadores turned their prows towards the setting sun.

What I have ventured to term the Secret of the Pacific is the mystery surrounding the ancient civilisations of the three Americas, the homes of the Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Incas, and their predecessors. What was their origin? What was their connection with each other ? Had they any link with the Old World? Did they in olden times, draw inspiration and knowledge from Asia, Egypt, Babylon? If not, and they sprang unaided from their own soil, and created their own culture, what were the conditions of their independent development?

These, of course, are not new questions. Indeed, they are well worn, and scientific dogma and sentimental discussion have long centred about them — opinions and theories, however, which are widely scattered, or contained in erudite and inaccessible tomes, out of reach of the general reader, for whom 1 the present work is intended.

It is not, however, a journey through library shelves alone that we shall undertake here, but an actual traverse, at least in part, of North and South America : those great regions forming the •Western world which we erroneously term " New " — the ancient world of America before Columbus. Upon the trails of Cortes and of Pizarro my travels have taken me ; trails which in some cases are almost as remote and difficult to-day as they were when first traversed by the white man from Europe, and the horse first ascended the Andes. We shall follow those paths, but to such journeyings we must add other incursions through space and time, both real and conjectural, which will take us from Mexico to Egypt, from Peru to Babylon, from the American shores to the strange islands of Polynesia. From those broad regions where the Toltec, the Aztec, and the Inca flourished we must seek to gather up those threads which some have conjectured lead to Asia ; which, could we but unravel them, might establish some co-relation of man and his arts between Asia and America, and, that said, of man throughout the world. It is an alluring theme, but we shall embark upon it with an open mind. It is not our purpose to establish new theories, but rather to inquire into the case, to observe what has been accomplished in its solution, and what remains to be done.

What are the monuments left by these ancient people, and what are the evidences of their civilisations ? For four thousand miles or more they lie upon the Western American littoral and Cordilleras, and seem to extend in isolated patches across the Pacific Ocean in a north-west path to Asia, like vast stepping-stones between the Old World and the New. In the rocky, ravines and scorching mesas of Arizona and Colorado, wildernesses whose trails were first mapped out by the bones of hardy explorers, are the extraordinary habitations of the Cliff Dwellers. On the high slopes and tablelands of Mexico are strange pyramids and mysterious courts and quadrangles, with carved stone halls about them, a puzzle to the beholder. In the dense, tropic forests of Yucatan are the sculptured facades of palaces and pyramid -temples of exceeding beauty and ingenuity, ruined and abandoned, or surrounded here and there by the wattle huts of half -savage Indians. In Central America sculptured stelae of great beauty and peculiarity protrude strangely from the jungle, whilst far away below the Equator, along the scorching coastline of Peru and amid the bleak tablelands and snow -crowned ranges of the Andes, are cunningly-wrought temples and impregnable fortresses, which could only have been fashioned under the mandates of ruthless, new-world Pharaohs or devout American Solomons. In the Mexican deserts and by the waters of the mysterious Lake Titicaca of the Incas, the Sun God and the Moon God held sway, and from unnumbered centuries ago ancient worshippers raised great temples to the " Unknown God." Deepening the mystery still, there arise, strange and grim upon solitary, sea-girt Pacific islands 1 in the track of the setting sun, colossal images and fortresses, whose origin no man can conjecture. Here, in brief, are the chapters, written in stone, of some great and perhaps universal history — a history which, so far, we have not been able to inscribe in the general plan of human record.

This, then, is the Secret of the Pacific. What was the origin of the people who fashioned these structures and planted the civilisations of early America? Did they simply spring from the soil of the New World, independent of outside influence, and evolve their arts upon it ? Or were they and the germs of their art carried thither in dim ages past? Was it some prehistoric migration of intrepid or persecuted man, who from some Asiatic cradle-land made his way across endless steppes and boundless seas, bearing in his breast the germs of civilisation and the stone-shaping arts that first tenanted these wilds of the three Americas ? Were they pioneer offshoots of some Eastern potentate's magnificences — some ambitious priests or would-be kings, envious of the power that built pyramids and palaces under Oriental skies, who privily adventured forth to seek a dominion where they themselves might be paramount? Did they, from their erring memories, or the skill of craftsmen they had lured with them, build up these replicas of pyramids and palaces and towers of Babel amid the deserts and mountains of a new land? Were they and their works part of the scheme of man and history of which ancient Assyria and Egypt were the earlier chapters ?

If they were we shall be forced to reflect that they covered up their trails remarkably well, and supposing that to be true, it is indeed a case for some antiquarian sleuth-hound, some archaeological Sherlock Holmes ! If they were not and we are to consider them as an indigenous, autochthonous manifestation of the works of Nature and Providence in a special hemisphere, there still remains the contemplation of very remote times in which their arts were evolved — times which could scarcely have been less remote than those which were necessary for the development of man's handicraft in the lands of the Euphrates and the Nile.

Both theories, the imported and the autochthonous, possess attractions . To regard mankind as coming from a common source and central point and having spread over the face of the earth, rather than having been generated at several points simultaneously, carries with it a certain sense of satisfaction. It seems to give man a greater standing to suppose that the Divine spark of his origin was engendered in one place only, and upon a "special occasion," rather than, like trees or animals, to have come to being in the four corners of the earth profusely and independently. The natural tendency to trace man, wherever he may be found, to a common origin is, popularly, very strong. Although we might maintain that the biblical account of man's origin, assigning a definite point in time and space to his appearance, might be given a wide interpretation, nevertheless it is something of a shock that we experience in the possibility of man's appearance as scattered and independent races, and not as a special being derived from one spot.

But if on the one hand we love to trace mankind to this common origin, the other contention of independent generation is not without certain allurements and compensating circumstances. There is much in the idea, to the philosophical mind, that Nature, having reached a certain point in her workings when it was time for man to appear, brought him to being simultaneously in several parts of the world. Nature might be regarded as having been pregnant with the coming of man, and as giving birth to him in Asia, Africa, and America simultaneously. The time had arrived for man to inherit the environment which — man feels he may assume it as true — had been prepared for him, and this appearance may not necessarily have been confined to a garden by the Euphrates alone.

It is to be recollected, and the reflection is an interesting one, that the " new " world of America is in many respects a replica of the " old " world of Eurasia, or Europe-Asia, " with the corresponding parts reversed, right and left, like two hands " as it has been said by geographers. The regions of the lakes, the mountain chains, highlands and lowlands, have or have had their counterparts in both worlds, and with their geographical resemblances and similar geological ages and formations form truly remarkable likenesses of each other. At the time when geological knowledge was less advanced than it is to-day the idea was prevalent that the new world of America was an " old world " geologically, and the old world of history a " new world " geologically. In reality both worlds are old geologically, or at least, in general terms neither can regard the other as its senior. They were both equally ready for human life, and in both have men had equally to struggle to support it. !

There are, of course, two considerations to be faced in this contemplation of man's presence in the New World — one biological, the other cultural. That is to say, was man as a being indigenous to America, and was his prehistoric civilisation indigenous, or were both conditions imported ones? It is the opinion among ethnologists that the same inherent mental nature is to be recognised in all men, and that when we compare this fact with our knowledge about the doings and thinkings, learned, by scientific observation, of all the races of people on the earth, we are entitled to draw the conclusion that all human races are of one species and one family. It is held generally that the stock races of America must have descended from this one family, because there are no anthropoid apes in America, none of the ape family higher than the Cebidae, from which it is impossible to trace man.

As for Australia there are not even Cebidae in that continent.

The anthropoid apes, it will be well to recollect — the man-like apes found only in the Old World (although even this has been disputed) — are of special interest to those who accept the " Darwinian " theories, due to the place in Nature assigned to them by the evolutionists.

Whilst it is generally admitted now " that no fundamental difference as regards anatomical structure exists between these higher apes and man, it is equally true that none of this species is in the direct line of human ancestry. There is a vast gulf to be spanned between these man-like apes and even the very lowest race of mankind, by some ' missing link.' Such a link, indeed, in the form of a creature reconstructed from the fossil remains of an erect ape-man found in the forests of Java — the famous Pitecanthorpus erectas of Dr, Dubois — is believed in by some." Into this field, however, we shall not intrude much here.

It is, therefore, generally recognised as a scientific fact that mankind is specifically of one family, and in such case it is to be argued that he must have had an original " cradle-land," from which the peopling of the earth was brought about by migration. Where was this , cradle-land? The evidence seems to show that, first of all, the world " was peopled by a general proto -human " form and each division of man would thus have had its pleistocene ancestors, and would have become differentiated into races by the influence of climatic and other surroundings. As to the cradle -land, there have been many theories, generally inclining towards the strange region of Indo-Malaysia, into which it will be also our business to enter in this volume.,