On the Indian Archipelago. 419 



agility of the monkey, and wild animals, which he tracks with the 

 keen eye and scent of a beast of prey, and slays with a poisoned 

 arrow projected from a hollow bambu by his breath. In lonely 

 creeks and straits we see him in a small boat, which is his cradle, 

 his house, and his bed of death ; which gives him all the shelter he 

 ever needs, and enables him to seize the food which always surrounds 

 him. On plains, and on the banks of rivers, we see the civilized 

 planter converting the moist flats into rice-fields, overshadowing his 

 neat cottage of bambii, nibong and palm leaves with the graceful 

 and bounteous cocoa-nut, and surrounding it with fruits, the variety 

 and flavour of which European luxury might envy, and often with 

 fragrant flowering trees and shrubs which the greenhouses of the 

 West do not possess. Where the land is not adapted for wet rice, 

 he pursues a system of husbandry which the farmer of Europe would 

 view with astonishment. Too indolent to collect fertilizing appli- 

 ances, and well -aware that the soil will not yield two successive crops 

 of rice, he takes but one, after having felled and burnt the forest ; and 

 he then leaves nature, during a ten years' fallow, to accumulate manure 

 for his second crop in the vegetable matter elaborated by the new 

 forest that springs up. Relieved from the care of his crop, he searches 

 the forests for ratans, canes, timber, fragrant woods, oils, wax, gums, 

 caoutchouc, gutta-percha, dyes, camphor, wild nutmegs, the tusks 

 of the elephant, the horn and hide of the rhinoceros, the skin of the 

 tiger, parrots, birds of paradise, argus pheasants, and materials for 

 mats, roofs, baskets and receptacles of various kinds. If he lives 

 near the coast, he collects fish, fish maws, fish roes, slugs (trepang), 

 seaweed (agaragar), tortoiseshell, rare corals and mother-of-pearl. 

 To the eastward, great fishing voyages are annually made to the 

 shores of Australia for trepang. In many parts, pepper, coffee, or 

 betel-nut, to a large, and tobacco, ginger, and other articles, to a con- 

 siderable extent, are cultivated. Where the Hirundo esculenta is 

 found, the rocks are climbed and the caves explored for its costly edi- 

 ble nest. In different parts of the Archipelago the soil is dug for 

 tin, antimony, iron, gold, or diamonds. The more civilized nations 

 make cloths and weapons, not only for their own use but for expor- 

 tation. The traders, including the Rajahs, purchase the commo- 

 dities which we have mentioned, dispose of them to the European, 

 Chinese, Arab, or Kling navigator who visits their shores, or send 

 them in their own vessels to the markets of Singapore, Batavia, Sa- 

 marang, Manilla, and Macassar. In these are gathered all the pro- 

 ducts of the Archipelago, whether such as the native inhabitants 

 procure by their unassisted industry, or such as demand the skill 

 and capital of the European or Chinese for their cultivation or manu- 

 facture; and amongst the latter, nutmegs, cloves, sugar, indigo, 

 sago, gambier, tea, and the partially cultivated cinnamon and cot- 

 ton. To these busy marts, the vessels of the first maritime people 

 of the Archipelago, the Bugis, and those of many Malayan commu- 

 nities, bring the produce of their own countries, and that which they 

 have collected from neighbouring lands, or from the wild tribes, to 

 furnish cargoes for the ships of Europe, America, Arabia, India, Siam, 

 China, and Australia. To the bazaar of the Eastern Seas, commerce 



