166 On the Indian Archipelago. 
as lived in their proximity. So great is the diversity of tribes, 
that if a dry catalogue of names suited the purpose of this sketch, 
we could not afford space to enumerate them. But, viewing hu- 
man life in the Archipelago as a general contemplation, we may 
recall a few of the broader peculiarities which would be most 
likely to dwell on the memory after leaving the region 
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 
isoned arrow projected froma hollow bambi 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 bambi, nibong and palm 
leaves, with the graceful and bounteous cocoa-nut, and surroun- 
ding it with fruits, the variety and flavor of which European lux- 
ury 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 pate of Europe would view with as- 
tonishment. ‘Too indolent to collect fertilizing appliances, and 
well-aware that the soil will not yield two successive crops 0 
rice, he takes but one, after having felled and burnt the forest ; 
and he then leaves nature, during a ten years’ fallow, to accumu- 
late manure for his second crop in the vegetable matter elabora- 
ted by the new forest that springs up. Relieved from the care 
of his om he ssepbirice the — for ratans, canes, timber, fra- 
grant woods, oils, wax, gums, caoutchouc, gutta-percha, dyes, 
eamphor, wild ease the ies of the elephant, the horn and 
hide of the rhinoceros, the skin of the tiger, parrots, birds of par- 
adise, argus pheasants, and materials for mats, roofs, baskets and 
receptacles of various kinds. If he lives near the coast, he col- 
lects fish, fish maws, an roes, slugs (trepang), seaweed (avaragar) % 
tortoise-shell, rare corals and mother-of-pearl. To the eastward, 
great fishing ees are annually made to the shores of ‘Australia 
for trepang. In many parts, pepper, coffee, or betel-nut, to a large 
extent, and tobacco, ginger, and other articles, to a considerable ex- 
tent, are cultivated. Where the Hirundo esculenta i 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, antimo- 
ny, iron, gold, or diamonds. The more civilized nations make 
cloths and weapons, not only for their own use but for expay 
tion. ‘The traders, including the Rajahs, purchase the co 
ties which we have mentioned, dispose of them to the European, _ 
