FIVE DAYS IN NANING. 
412 
had come from, and he replied <e Malacca and all the Great 
Island belongs to us.” I asked what island ? “This land you 
know is an island, when you go to the top of the high 
mountains you see the sea all round. It is Pulo Besar (the 
great island). It belong to us ; the Malays have come into 
our country, but Malacca and all the land is ours and not 
theirs'*. 
(7b be continued ) 
sum.* 
Mr Ttier, attach^ to the French mission in China, has 
recently visited a cluster of islands lying to the northeast of 
Borneo, between that island and Mindano. His researches 
on the natural history and geology of these islands, are of 
much interest. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and the climate 
more healthy than is usual in intertropical climates. The 
sugar cane, cocoa, rice, cotton, the bread fruit, indigo, and 
spices of all kinds, are among their products. Fruits and 
vegetables are of a great variety, abundant, and of a superior 
quality. Nine-tenths of the soil is still covered with the 
primitive forest, of which teak-wood, so valuable in ship¬ 
building, forms a part. A considerable commerce with China 
and Manila is carried on, and from ten to twelve thousand 
Chinese annually visit the island of Basilari, the most north¬ 
erly of the group, to cultivate its soil, and take away its 
products. The peculiar situation of these islands, and their 
contiguity to the Philippines, to Celebes, Borneo, Manila, 
China, and Singapore, make them well adapted for a Euro¬ 
pean colony. In fact, there do not appear to be any islands 
of the East 1? dies of equal importance, and there can be no 
doubt that, with the present desire manifested by European 
nations for colonizing, this desirable spot will ere long be 
secured by one of them. The Sulu group embraces sixty 
inhabited islands, governed by a Sultan, residing at Soug. 
One of these would be an advantageous point for an American 
colony or station- 
* From a paper by Mr Bartlett-FIor. Secretary of the American Ethno¬ 
logical Society, in the Transactions ot the Society, 
