4^2 KEELING ISLAND chap. 



years ago, Mr. Hare, a worthless character, brought from the 

 East Indian archipelago a number of Malay slaves, which now, 

 including children, amount to more than a hundred. Shortly 

 afterwards Captain Ross, who had before visited these islands 

 in his merchant-ship, arrived from England, bringing with him 

 his family and goods for settlement : along with him came Mr. 

 Liesk, who had been a mate in his vessel. The Malay slaves 

 soon ran away from the islet on which Mr. Hare was settled, 

 and joined Captain Ross's party. Mr. Hare upon this was 

 ultimately obliged to leave the place. 



The Malays are now nominally in a state of freedom, and 

 certainly are so as far as regards their personal treatment ; but 

 in most other points they are considered as slaves. From their 

 discontented state, from the repeated removals from islet to 

 islet, and perhaps also from a little mismanagement, things are 

 not very prosperous. The island has no domestic quadruped, 

 excepting the pig, and the main vegetable production is the 

 cocoa-nut. The whole prosperity of the place depends on this 

 tree ; the only exports being oil from the nut, and the nuts 

 themselves, which are taken to Singapore and Mauritius, where 

 they are chiefly used, when grated, in making curries. On the 

 cocoa-nut, also, the pigs, which are loaded with fat, almost 

 entirely subsist, as do the ducks and poultry. Even a huge 

 land-crab is furnished by nature with the means to open and 

 feed on this most useful production. 



The ring-formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted in 

 the greater part of its length by linear islets. On the northern 

 or leeward side there is an opening through which vessels can 

 pass to the anchorage within. On entering, the scene was 

 very curious and rather pretty ; its beauty, however, entirely 

 depended on the brilliancy of the surrounding colours. The 

 shallow, clear, and still water of the lagoon, resting in its 

 greater part on white sand, is, when illumined by a vertical 

 sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant expanse, several 

 miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line of snow- 

 white breakers from the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or 

 from .the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land, crowned by. 

 the, level tops of the cocoa-nut trees. As a white cloud here and 

 ther-e affords a pleasing contrast with the azure sky, so in the 

 lagoon bands of living coral darken the emerald green water. 



