394 Voyage of the Novara. 



the steam supplied to the apparatus when in activity ; in a 

 third, persons are busy examining and testing the resulting 

 products with scrupulous precision. With all its develop- 

 ment, European industry has, in this quarter, exercised but an 

 obscure influence ; and, thus far, has been productive of but 

 small results as a civilizing element among this population, 

 which has hitherto shown itself so little disposed to accept 

 the Christian form of civilization. 



In the large warehouse belonging to Mr. Wilson, we also 

 saw huge heaps of "Kauris," or Cowries, {cypraea moneta), 

 the renowned, or rather ill-reputed, species of mussel, which 

 comes from the Maldive Islands, and plays so important a 

 part in the commerce with the coast of Malabar and the 

 interior of Africa ; while here, it constitutes the sole medium 

 of exchange, which is used by way of barter for almost 

 all sorts of agricultural produce, chiefly among the blacks.* 

 These mussels are sent from Ceylon to London, and thence 

 back to the Eastern Coast of Africa, and thus indirectly 

 uphold the slave-trade, as the native merchants of that 

 region barter these shells, so greatly sought after by all 

 African tribes, as ornament, for negroes and negresses, who 

 are in turn sold to the " speculators in human flesh." A 

 ton of these shells, of which the smaller description are most 



. * The Malay name for this miisscl is " beya," implj-ing diit3% toll, tax, thus leaving 

 it open to conjecture that that nation, in their commerce with tlie Asiatic and African 

 continents, have for untold ages employed the same principles of currency and 

 expressions of value as ourselves. 



