ON CORAL REEFS AS A CAUSE OF FEVER. 440 
now concurs, having, I am proud to say, given in his acquies¬ 
cence to my corsl theory. That the mud flats and mangrove 
swamps of the Cobourg Peninsula, are not the engenderers of 
malaria X am fully convinced from analogy, as I make bold 
to assert that there is not a settlement in the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago rendered unhealthy by mangrove swamps or mud 
flats, provided such are subject to tidal influence, and free 
from the influence of coral reefs and fresh water swamps. 
is The inner harbours of Port Essington, Port Bremer 
and Limba Assin are the only spots subject to malaria” 
“ though I think it will be found at Knocker’s and Raffles’s 
Bays from the circumstance of the natives seldom residing 
there except occasionally for a few days ” The interior of the 
country appears to be free from malarious influence, as hunting 
parties have been out for weeks together without one indivi¬ 
dual suffering ill effects from such exposure. 
From the examination of the charts of the Coburg Pe¬ 
ninsula, the above localities are directly exposed to the 
influence of the coral reefs which abound at the entrance 
of these harbours, and are exposed at low water, with the 
exception of Port Essington, which seems to be so in such 
a slight degree, and that in the upper part of the inner 
harbour, where however the natives will not anchor, that I 
am inclined to attribute the fever of the settlement of Vic¬ 
toria to fresh water swamps, which I believe are in existence 
there. At all events 1 would leave the cause of the fever of 
the inner harbour of Port Essington as doubtful, but con¬ 
sider that of Port Bremer, Limba Assin, and Raffles’s Bay 
as decidedly proceeding from coral malaria. 
Sulu. 
Leavingthis part of the world, and taking an extensive stride 
backwards to the N. East of Borneo, we fall in with the Sulu 
group of islands, the fever of whose principal town I will 
briefly mention This town of Sulu has much faded from 
its former greatness, when little more than half a century 
ago its pirate prahus swept the surrounding seas, and suc¬ 
cessfully contested the possession of the adjacent shore of 
1 orneo with us. It were endless to trace the causes of this 
fall, for it seems natural and in the way of Providence that the 
natives shall degenerate and fade away before European 
influence; but there is a cause at present working, evident 
as it is irresistable, in its effects, to which the JDatus of Sulu 
owe more of their degeneracy and loss of power than to any 
influence which Europeans can exert; it is the immoderate 
