The Present Condition of the Indian Archipelago. 357 



But, viewing human life in the Archipelago as a general contem- 

 plation, we may recall a iew of the broader peculiarities which 

 would be most likely to dwell on the memory after leaving the re- 

 gion. 



In the hearts of the forests we meet man scantily covered with 

 the bark of a tree, and living on wild fruits, which he seeks with the 

 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 ar- 

 row, 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 civilised planter convert- 

 ing the moist flats into rice-fields, overshadowing his neat cottage of 

 bambu, nibong, aud 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 flower- 

 ing trees and shrubs which the greenhouses of the West do not pos- 

 sess. "Where the land is not adapted for wet rice, he pursues a sys- 

 tem of husbandry which the farmer of Europe would view with as- 

 tonishment. Too indolent to collect fertilising appliances, and well 

 aware that the soil will not yield two successive crops of rice, he takes 

 but one, after having felled and burned the forest ; and he then leaves 

 nature, during a ten years fallow, to accumulate manure for his se- 

 cond crop in the vegetable matter elaborated by the new forest that 

 springs up. Eelieved 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 nutmeg, 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), 

 sea-weed (agaragar), tortoise-shell, 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 

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

 tin, antimony, iron, gold, or diamouds. The more civilised nations 

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

 ation. The traders, including the Rajahs, purchase the commodities 

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

 Arab, or Khng navigator wiio visits their shores, or send them in 

 their own vessels to the markets of Singapore, Eatavia, Samarang. 

 Manilla, and Maccassar. In these are gathered all the products of 

 the Archipelago, whether iuch as the native inhabitants procure by 



