540 



KEELING ISLAND. 



April, 1836. 



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 

 the discontented state of the people, the repeated removals, 

 and, perhaps, also from a little mismanagement, things are not 

 very prosperous. The island has no quadruped, excepting 

 the pig, and no vegetable in any quantity excepting the 

 cocoa-nut. On the latter the whole prosperity of the place 

 depends. The only exports are oil from the nut, and the 

 cocoa-nut* itself. On it the pigs, which are loaded with fat, 

 almost entirely subsist, as likewise do the poultry and ducks. 

 Even a huge land-crab is furnished by nature with a curious 

 instinct and form of legs to open and feed on this same 

 fruit. 



The annular reef of this 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 

 reach the anchorage. On entering, the scene was very curious 

 and rather pretty ; its beauty, however, being solely dependant 

 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 illuminated by a vertical sun, of a 

 most vivid green. This brilliant expanse, several miles in 

 width, is on all sides divided, either from the dark heaving 

 water of the ocean by a line of snow-white breakers, or from 

 the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land, crowned at 

 an equal height by the tops of the cocoa-nut trees. As a 

 white cloud here and there affords a pleasing contrast with 

 the azure sky, so in the lagoon, dark bands of living coral 

 appear through the emerald green water. 



The next morning after anchoring, I went on shore on 

 Direction Island. The strip of dry land is only a few hun- 

 dred yards wide ; on the lagoon side we have a white cal- 

 careous beach, the radiation from which in such a climate is 



* The nuts are carried to Singapore and to Mauritius; the white 

 part being grated into a pulp, is used in making curries, and is said greatly 

 to improve that dish. 



