330 THE OCEAN. 



Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and pene- 

 trated to climes which had hitherto been invested 

 with all the romance of mystery and fable ; then 

 commencing a commerce which has poured incalcu- 

 lable wealth into the lap of Europe. 



This immense archipelago, which occupies a tract 

 of the Ocean four thousand miles in length, and 

 fourteen hundred in breadth, is an assemblage of 

 islands perfectly unique. The multitudinous islets 

 of the Pacific, if all united, would not together form 

 a third-rate island of this group. The land, though 

 broken with countless thousands of isles, so equally 

 divides the space with the sea, that one is at a loss 

 to say which predominates. A large majority of 

 the smaller isles and reefs are of the same struc- 

 ture as the coral atolls of Polynesia, and present 

 a similar character in their zoology and botany ; but 

 the larger tracts of land, almost a continent in their 

 dimensions, are of the old formations. The widely- 

 scattered groups of small islands on the northern 

 boundary, indeed, — the Ladrones, the Carolines, the 

 Pelews, &c, we are at a loss to distinguish : they 

 are usually arranged in the Indian Archipelago, 

 while they are decidedly Polynesian in their cha- 

 racters. 



The boats which are used by the natives of these 

 islands, from their very peculiar construction, as 

 well as from their unrivalled powers of sailing, 

 demand a moment's notice. Lord Anson, who first 

 met with them at the Ladrone Islands, and who calls 

 them flying proas, considers them "so singular and 

 extraordinary an invention, that it would do honour 



