A VISIT TO THE INDIAN AKCHiPELAOO, 



under weigh in company with sucli a fleet of gun-boats as 

 wowM have done credit to any nation. 



It must lie confessed that, in Si/siematic protection to 

 the commerce of their respective seas, hoth Spain and 

 HolLand infinitely surpass our own country, so far as she 

 has at present sJiawji any dote rmi nation to crush this 

 evil in the latitudes where EngHsh iufiuencc nlone could 

 do so* The Spaniards, alive to the truth tliat commerce 

 and piracy cannot co-oxist, have long maintained sucli a 

 naval force as kis not only driven aMaj, but keeps at a 

 disUiicc from the Pliilhppine Islands, those hordes who 

 used to inflict on their marine traffic such sacrifice of hfe 

 and merchandise. Some of the most formidable hordes 

 now existing are composed of, or maintfiined bj^ fugitive 

 princes and nobles, wlio liavo been, hj Spaiush vigilance, 

 cliased away from the Bay of Magin Llano, and other 

 plac^ within tlie protoction of that flag. The Dutch, 

 true to the same policy, and perhaps even more hapj)y in 

 its exercise, have, by a system of energetic vigdance 

 along the whole coast of Java, not only to a great extent 

 eradicated piracy frona the Celebes^ but have in many 

 instances converted freebooters into fishermen, murderers 

 into merchants or agriculturists. What becomes, however, 

 of the remnant— of those for whom, as a vocation, murder 

 aiid rapine have superior charms ? Thcyj of coui'se, must 

 find a sea of impunity ; establish themselves on the least 

 protected coast — the least carcd-for expanse of oceans 

 where, if they ever do happen to sm-pass tficmsolvos in 



