low, because those islands have been slowly crossed by
a much higher race, the Polynesians. The Maoris of New Zealand, the
Tongans, Hawaians, etc., are people of our own (Caucasic) stock,
probably diverging to the south-east while our branch of the stock
pressed westward. This not only explains the higher condition of the
Maoris, etc., but also shows why they have not advanced like their
European cousins. Their environment is one of the finest in the world,
but--it lies far away from the highways of culture.

In much the same way can we interpret the swarming peoples of Africa.
The more primitive peoples which arrived first, and were driven south or
into the central forests by the later and better equipped invaders from
the central zone, have remained the more primitive. The more northern
peoples, on the fringe of, or liable to invasion from, the central
zone, have made more advance, and have occasionally set up rudimentary
civilisations. But the movements from the north to the south in early
historical times are too obscure to enable us to trace the action of
the principle more clearly. The peoples of the Mediterranean fringe
of Africa, living in the central zone of stimulation, have proved very
progressive. Under the Romans North Africa was at least as civilised as
Britain, and an equally wise and humane European policy might lead to
their revival to-day.

When we turn to Asia we encounter a mass of little-understood peoples
and a few civilisations with obscure histories, but we have a fairly
clear application of the principle. The northern, more isolated
peoples, are the more primitive; the north-eastern, whose isolation
is accentuated by a severe environment, are most primitive of all. The
Eskimo, whether they are the survivors of the Magdalenian race or a
regiment thrown off the Asiatic army as it entered America, remain at
the primitive level. The American peoples in turn accord with this view.
Those which penetrate furthest south remain stagnant or deteriorate;
those which remain in the far north remain below the level of
civilisation, because the land-bridge to Asia breaks down; but those
which settle in Central America evolve a civilisation. A large zone,
from Mexico to Peru, was overspread by this civilisation, and it was
advancing steadily when European invaders destroyed it, and reduced the
civilised Peruvians to the Quichas of to-day.

There remain the civilisations of Asia, and here we have a new and
in