present moment required. Captain Wilson earnestly solicited the continuance, if possible, of his visits, and was assured that, however inconvenient the distance, he would daily attend the issue of the distemper.

"When I went the second day, I found Mr Sharp there-a gentleman often mentioned in the foregoing narrative-who, hearing of his young friend's illness, had come to assist Captain Wilson, nor ever stirred from the house till poor Lee Boo had yielded to his fate.

'The captain having never had the small-pox himself, was now precluded going into Lee Boo's room, who, informed of the cause, acquiesced in being deprived of seeing him, still continuing to be full of inquiries after his health, fearing he might catch the disease; but though Captain Wilson complied with the request of his family in not going into the chamber, yet he never absented himself from the house; and Mr Sharp constantly took care that every direction was duly attended to, and from him I received the account of our unfortunate young stranger during his illness, which he bore with great firmness of mind, never refusing to take anything that was ordered for him, when told that Dr Smyth (to whose opinion he paid the greatest deference) desired it. Mrs Wilson happening to have some indisposition at this time, which confined her to her bed, Lee Boo, on hearing of it, became impatient, saying: "What! mother ill? Lee Boo get up to see her;" which he did, and would go to her apartment, to be satisfied how she really was.

'On the Thursday before his death, walking across the room, he looked at himself in the glass (his face being then much swelled and disfigured); he shook his head, and turned away, as if disgusted at his own appearance, and told Mr Sharp that "his father and mother much grieve, for they knew he was very sick." This he repeated several times. At night, growing worse, he appeared to think himself in danger; he took Mr Sharp by the hand, and, fixing his eyes steadfastly on him, with earnestness said: "Good friend, when you go to Pelew, tell Abba Thulle that Lee Boo take much drink to make small-pox go away, but he die; that the captain and mother" (meaning Mrs Wilson) “very kind—all English very good men; was much sorry he could not speak to the king the number of fine things the English had got." Then he reckoned what had been given him as presents, which he wished Mr Sharp would distribute, when he went back, among the chiefs; and requested that very particular care might be taken of the blue glass barrels on pedestals, which he directed should be given to the king.

'Poor Tom Rose, who stood at the foot of his young master's bed, was shedding tears at hearing all this, which Lee Boo observing, rebuked him for his weakness, asking: “Why should he be crying so because Lee Boo die?"

'Whatever he felt, his spirit was above complaining; and Mrs Wilson's chamber being adjoining to his own, he often called out

to inquire if she were better, always adding, lest she might suffer any disquietude on his account, "Lee Boo do well, mother." The smallpox, which had been out eight or nine days, not rising, he began to feel himself sink, and told Mr Sharp he was going away. His mind, however, remained perfectly clear and calm to the last, though what he suffered in the latter part of his existence was severe indeed. The strength of his constitution struggled long and hard against the venom of his distemper, till exhausted nature yielded in the

contest.

'Captain Wilson noticed to the India House the unfortunate death of this young man, and received orders to conduct everything with proper decency respecting his funeral. He was interred in Rotherhithe churchyard, the captain and his brother attending. All the young people of the academy joined in this testimony of regard; and the concourse of people at the church was so great, that it appeared as if the whole parish had assembled to join in seeing the last ceremonies paid to one who was so much beloved by all who had known him.

'The India Company soon after ordered a tomb to be erected over his grave, with the following inscription, which I have transcribed from it :

"To the Memory of PRINCE LEE Boo, a native of the Pelew or Palos Islands, and son to Abba Thulle, rupack or king of the island Coorooraa, who departed this life on the 27th of December 1784, aged 20 years: this stone is inscribed by the Honourable United East India Company as a testimony of esteem for the humane and kind treatment afforded by his father to the crew of their ship, the Antelope, Captain Wilson, which was wrecked off that island in the night of the 9th of August 1783.

Stop, reader, stop! let nature claim a tear-
A prince of mine, Lee Boo, lies buried here."

6 Among the little property which he left behind, beside what he had particularly requested Mr Sharp to convey to his father and friends, there were found, after his death, the stones or seeds of most of the fruits he had tasted in England, carefully and separately put up. And when one considers that his stay with us was but five months and twelve days, we find that in the midst of the wide field of novelty that encompassed him, he had not been neglectful of that which, before his departure from Pelew, had been probably pointed out to him as a principal matter of attention.' Indeed, in all his movements and acquirements, one idea seemed to be predominant-namely, that of conveying to his native islands not only the manners and customs, the arts and manufactures of the English, but specimens of the natural produce and peculiarities of their country. It is true that many things which at first appeared to him important and valuable, would, as he became better informed, present

themselves in their true light; but this does not render the less worthy of our admiration his early zeal and industry.

From these few anecdotes of this amiable youth, cut off in the moment that his character began to blossom, what hopes might not have been entertained of the fruit such a plant would have produced! He had both ardour and talents for improvement, and every gentle quality of the heart to make himself beloved; so that, as far as the dim sight of mortals is permitted to penetrate, he might, had his days been lengthened, have carried back to his own country, not the vices of a new world, but those solid advantages which his own good sense would have suggested as likely to become most useful to it.

SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES AND THE

MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

THE continent of Asia, as may be observed on looking at a map, terminates on the south in three peninsulas projected into the Indian Ocean-one being Arabia, the second Hindustan or India, and the third Siam; this last being longer and narrower than the others, and ending in a projection called the Malay Peninsula or Malaya, near the extremity of which is the settlement of Malacca. Carrying our eye across the Indian Ocean, we observe that off the southern point of Malaya there are numerous islands of larger and smaller dimensions; the sea for hundreds of miles is studded with them, and group after group stretches across the ocean almost to the northern shores of Australia. As these islands lie in an easterly direction from India, they are sometimes styled the Eastern Archipelago, and at other times the Malay Archipelago or Malaysia. The principal of these fine islands are Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, and the Moluccas-the last being called the Spice Islands by geographers, because their chief produce, or at least articles of export, are pepper, cloves, nutmegs, ginger, and other spices. To the north of Borneo, in the Chinese Sea, lies an additional group of islands, the Philippines; but of these it is here unnecessary to speak.

Travellers who have visited these islands describe some of them as a kind of earthly paradise. Lying under the equinoctial line, their climate is excessively hot, but they are daily fanned by seabreezes, which temper their heated atmosphere; from their mountains flow streams of pure water; their valleys are green and picturesque; and the luxuriance of their vegetation is beyond anything that the natives of Northern Europe can imagine. In their thick groves swarm birds of the gayest plumage; monkeys of various species are seen skipping from rock to rock, or darting in and out among the bushes; and wild beasts and snakes live in their thickets and jungles. No. 95.

The native inhabitants, whose wants are easily supplied, spend the greater part of their time in the open air, cultivating their fields, or reclining under awnings, or beneath the more delicious shade of the nutmeg trees.

Inhabited chiefly by an aboriginal Malay race, some of the islands are still under the government of native chiefs or sultans; but most of them have been, in whole or part, appropriated by European powers. The Portuguese, being the first navigators who reached this part of the world by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope,

acquired large possessions not only in India but in the Eastern Archipelago; but towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Dutch, animated by a vigorous spirit of commercial enterprise, dispossessed the Portuguese, and gained the ascendency in Java and other islands, finally reducing them to the condition of Dutch colonies. The object of the Dutch in getting possession of these remote Asiatic islands was to procure spices, wherewith to supply the general market of Europe; and as this was long an exceedingly profitable trade, no pains were spared to keep the Spice Islands as a kind of preserve for the special benefit of Holland.

We have two reasons for introducing these islands and their history to our readers-the first is, to shew how selfishness in trade, like selfishness in everything else, is weakness and loss, and how benevolence is power and gain; the second is, to point out, by way of example, how much may be done to remedy the greatest grievances, and produce national happiness, by the efforts of one