The inhabitants of Java seem to owe their origin to the same stock, from which most of the islands lying to the south of the eastern Peninsula of Asia appear to have been first peopled. This stock is evidently Tartar, and has, by its numerous and wide-spreading branches, not only extended itself over the Indian Archipelago, but over the neighbouring Continent. "To judge from external appearance, that is to say, from shape, size, and feature," observes Dr. Francis Buchanan, in his Notices on the Birman Empire[34], "there is one very extensive nation that inhabits the east of Asia. It includes the eastern and western Tartars of the Chinese authors, the Calmucs, the Chinese, the Japanese, and other tribes inhabiting what is called the Peninsula of India beyond the Ganges, and the islands to the south and east of this, as far at least as New Guinea."--"This nation," adds the same author, "may be distinguished by a short, squat, robust, fleshy stature, and by features highly different from those of an European. The face is somewhat in shape of a lozenge, the forehead and chin being sharpened, whilst at the cheek bones it is very broad. The eyebrows, or superciliary ridges, in this nation, project very little, and the eyes are very narrow, and placed rather obliquely in the head, the external angles being the highest. The nose is very small, but has not, like that of the negro, the appearance of being flattened, and the apertures of the nostrils, which in the European are linear and parallel, in them are nearly circular and divergent, for the _septum narium_ being much thickest towards the face, places them entirely out of the parallel line. The mouths of this nation are in general well shaped; their hair is harsh, lank, and black. Those of them that live even in the highest climates do not obtain the deep hue of the negro or Hindu; nor do such of them as live in the coldest climates acquire the clear bloom of the European."