JAVA. 
39 
birds and insects, are beautiful and varied, and 
present many peculiar forms found nowhere 
else upon the globe. The soil .throughout the 
island is exceedingly fertile, and all the pro- 
ductions of the tropics, together with many of 
the temperate zones, can be easily cultivated. 
Java, too, possesses a civilisation, a history, and 
antiquities of its own, of great interest. The 
Brahminical religion flourished in it from an 
epoch of unknown antiquity till about the year 
1478, when that of Mahomet superseded it. The 
former relig^n was accompanied by a civilisation 
which has not been equalled by the conquerors ; 
for, scattered through the country, especially in 
the eastern parts of it, are found buried in lofty 
forests, temples, tombs, and statues of great 
beauty and grandeur, and the remains of ex- 
tensive cities, where the tiger, the rhinoceros, 
and the wild bull now roam undisturbed.” 
<l To the ordinary English traveller, the Malay 
Archipelago is perhaps the least known part of 
the earth. Few persons realise that as a whole 
it is comparable with the primary divisions of 
the globe, and that some of its separate islands 
are larger than France or the Austrian Empire. 
The traveller soon, however, acquires different 
ideas. He comes to look upon this region aa 
