THE 
JOURNAL 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AN0 
EASTERN ASIA. 
} 
THE PRESENT CONDITION OP THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
We should wish, on the threshold of our labours, to bring 
into one general popular view some of the most characteristic 
features of the Indian Archipelago as a whole.,—to yield our¬ 
selves for a while to the impression which Nature here makes 
on the senses and feelings of the European,—to trace her more 
permanent influences on the races who have lived for ages under 
her power,—to enquire to what condition these have now been 
brought by their past history,—and to search amongst the ele¬ 
ments of change which may be working, or are about to come 
into operation, amongst them, at the present day, for those 
which are most likely to determine their future. But the very 
greatness and variety of the subject, which so strongly attract 
the mind, subdue the hope of being able, within the- narrow 
room allowed us here, to present any adequate picture of it, 
and compel us to leave to the reader to clothe with the distinct¬ 
ness and freshness of truth, the dry and fragmentary generalities 
which we must be satisfied to lay before him. It is in no 
way our design to give a methodical review of the geography 
and history of the Archipelago. This it would be impossible 
to do, with any accuracy, in the space to which we must con¬ 
fine ourselves, and we therefore assume that our readers have 
VOL. I. NO. I. 
a 
