9i 
AERU ISLANUS. 
gi'eat consuinptbn in China, where it is much used as a 
delicacy for the table, exists in great abundance on these 
banks, which also furnish pearl-oysters of two varieties ; 
namely, the large oyster, whose shell is the mothcr-of- 
pearl shell of commerce, and the smaller variety in which 
the seed-pearls are found. Some of the more eastern 
islands contain lime-stone caverns, within which the 
small swallow constructs the edible birds'-nests of com- 
merce, also an article in great demand for the markets of 
China, where it is said to be worth its weight in silver. 
These circumstances, coupled ^vith the industrious habits 
and friendly disposition of the islanders, has ted to the 
group becoming a great resort for traders from the west- 
em parts of the Archipelago, iueludiug natives of Java 
and Celebes, Chinese, and even Europeans, who bring 
large quantities of manufactured goods and other articles 
suited to the tastes of the inhabitants. The latter have 
consequently become the most wealthy and prosperous 
of all the native tribes of the neighbouring seas, 
Tlie Arru islanders bear a strong personal resemblance 
to the aborigines of Port Essington ; indeed on seveml 
occasions in which natives from the neighbourhood of the 
late settlement visited the islands in European vessels, 
they were considered by the Arrnans as belonging to 
some remote part of their own group. But the Arrnans 
also possess so many characteristics in common with the 
Outanatas of the opposite coast of New Guinea, that it 
will be necessary to include them in a general account of 
the Papuans, 
The ports frequented by the foreign ti-ading-vcssels are 
all in the north-wcstem part of the gimp, where the 
