The Malay Archipelago. 



CHAPTER I. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



If we look at a globe or a map of the eastern hemisphere, 

 we shall perceive lietween Asia and Australia a number of 

 large and small islands, forming a connected grouj) distinct 

 from those great masses of land, and having little connection 

 with either of them. Situated upon the equator, and bathed 

 by the tepid water of the great tropical oceans, this region 

 enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and moist than almost 

 any other part of the globe, and teems with natural produc- 

 tions which ai-e elsewhei*e unknown. The richest of fruits 

 and the most precious of spices are here indigenous. It pro- 

 duces the giant flowers of the Rafilesia, the great green-wing- 

 ed Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly tribes), the man- 

 like orang-utan, and the gorgeous birds of paradise. It is in- 

 habited by a peculiar and interesting race of mankind — the 

 Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this insular tract, 

 which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago. 



To the ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known 

 part of the globe. Our possessions m it are few and scanty ; 

 scarcely any of our travellers go to explore it ; and in many 

 collections of maps it is almost ignoi-ed, being divided be- 

 tween Asia and the Pacific Islands. It thus happens that few 

 persons realize that, as a whole, it is comparable with the 

 pi'imary divisions of the globe, and that some of its sei^arate 

 islands are larger than France or the Austrian empire. The 

 traveller, however, soon acquires different ideas. He sails for 

 days, or even for weeks, along the shores of one of these great 

 islands, often so great that its inhabitants believe it to be a 

 vast continent. He finds that voyages among these islands 



