THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
19 
bold and active Malays and Bugis who infest their coasts; openly 
robbed and enslaved by their brother islanders ; defrauded by the 
Chinese, King or Arab adventurer, whose superior activity and 
cunning, enable him to profit more by their industry than they 
do themselves: neglected by the European who seeks the same end 
by honest means, and, that attained, returns to his native country 
and gives them no second thought; and without any active inter¬ 
nal elements of advancement-it is only by awakening an inter¬ 
est in Europe itself that the inhabitants of the Archipelago can hope 
for any amelioration. So long as they only know one place of 
European character,— the ardent, steady and inventive pursuit of gain, 
—the influence of Europe will remain, what it has hitherto proved, 
more prejudicial than bene Uial. But let the deep human sym¬ 
pathy which dwells in England and overflows on so many sides, 
once effectually reach the people of this noble region of the world; 
let England learn their many virtues, their mild and engaging man¬ 
ners, their freedom from intolerance, their docility, their apti¬ 
tude for instruction ; and let her but take seriously to heart the 
fact that on the seas where her flag has floated and her commerce 
largely profited for two hundred and fifty years, the peaceful trader 
cannot at this day venture to embark without the risk of being 
slain or enslaved,—that from the destruction of all national power, in 
which her own policy aided, a few thousand pirates now keep the 
coasts of countries numbering millions of inhabit nts in a state of 
insecurisy,—-and her energy and resources will soon work out the 
best means of suppressing these evils at once and for ever, and 
of implanting fresh and vigorous elements of more development 
in the now stagnant minds of the inhabitants. Without this we 
may continue for another hundred years to mingle in the trading 
communities of the Archipelago, without ever exercising any of that 
influence which our predecessors, the Hindus and the Mahome- 
dans, exercised. But if we would seek to assimilate the natives 
of the Archipelago to those of Europe, and take them with us on 
our path of advancement, we must, like the Hindus and Mahomedans, 
begin by acquiring a thorough and familiar knowledge of them. 
Their political and material wants are so connected that what¬ 
ever tends to remedy the latter must react on the former. It 
is no less the duty of the Christian and the philanf ^nist for their 
