ing the grower from one of the most galling and ignominious conditions of slavery and servitude under which a people ever groaned,--implying not only the inhibition of using the staple produce of the soil, but the necessity of cultivating it as a taskwork for the benefit of their oppressors.

Coffee is the next article in point of importance in this branch of trade. It was introduced from Arabia into Java, to which it is still nearly confined; and was then an article of monopoly, until a partial enlargement of the trade took place, in the times of the British administration. It is, under this enlargement, now sold by the grower at from six to seven Spanish dollars per pecul; and, by the wholesale merchant, cured, and packed for importation, at ten dollars. Java produces, of this commodity, at least sixteen millions of pounds. The same fine island yields about ten millions of pounds of superior clayed sugar; and the quantity is daily increasing. The active, intelligent, and frugal Chinese, are the manufacturers of this commodity; and, with the advantage of a wonderfully fertile soil, + cheap machinery, and low wages, it is estimated that it might be produced at two Spanish dollars per pecul, or one-sixth part of the average of West India. The markets of Europe, however, regulate the local ones; and the manufacturer obtains from the wholesale merchant, from 4 to 5 Spanish dollars per pecul, while he disposes of his purchase to the exporter at from 6 to 7.

The trade in pepper, which is not an indigenous plant, but anciently introduced from the Peninsula of India, is too well known to require any long detail. It is confined to the westerly portions of the Archipelago; and yields in quality to the produce of the parent country-but not in the same degree that it surpasses it in cheapness and abundance. Its natural price may be estimated at 5 Spanish dollars the pecul; and the exporter, in times of competition, receives it at 8 or 9. ‡

A Malay name for a Chinese weight, signifying a natural load, equal to 133 lib. avoirdupois, in universal use throughout the Archipelago.

The soil of Java is often 100 feet deep, and 18 and 20 are com mon. In this fine mould, the sugar cane and tobacco grow luxuriantly, without manure; and in all the best lands, which are also the most abundant, the great rice crop is, within the circle of the year, succeeded either by a second of the same grain, or by one of maize, pulse, farinaceous roots, or cotton.

The Americans, in their small shipping, carry on a direct trade with the native ports, in this commodity; while the express provision of an act of Parliament makes us spectators only of this branch of Commèrce.

A

In speaking of the exports for Europe, it would be unfair towards our commercial readers, not to notice the article of cotton, so cheaply and abundantly produced in Java, where, besides the exports to the neighbouring islands, in its raw and manufactured state, and now and then to China, it affords the material with which its five millions of inhabitants are clothed. Under existing circumstances, when neither skill nor machinery are employed, the clear wool, of superior quality, can be exported at from 10 to 12 Spanish dollars per pecul. The introduction of European enterprise, skill and capital, without which, neither this nor any other branch of foreign Indian commerce can acquire value and importance, would enhance the quality and reduce the price of the cotton of Java,--leaving, in our judgments, little chance for competition to other countries.

The inhabitants of the Indian islands have a taste for the luxu ries, comforts and enjoyments esteemed by the rest of mankind, so general, and it may be almost said indiscriminate, that it is little controlled by any prejudice, religious, moral or political. Among them we find, in this respect, not the most distant similitude to the selfish, obstinate, yet exaggerated prejudices ascribed to the Hindus. The teas, silks and porcelains of China; the hardware, cotton fabricks, broad-cloths, even the wines of Europe; the cotton goods and opium of Hindustan; the coffee and dried fruits of Arabia, with the immense variety of their own native productions, are all adapted to their versatile tastes. Throughout the Archipelago there certainly cannot be less than ten millions of such customers.

It would be superfluous to enter upon an enumeration of every European commodity which finds a market in the Indian islands. Iron, cotton-cloths, and broad-cloths, are the staples of the trade. In iron, the whole consumption of the great population to which we have just alluded, is exclusively supplied from Europe. At one port of Java, (and we quote this instance, because the article was intended for the consumption of the provinces adjacent, and not for exportation), thirteen thousand cwts. were imported in one year. It is a very remarkable and most instructive fact, that the Malay and Bugis tribes have long substituted, in a great measure, the chintzes of Britain for the inferior produce of Bengal, and the higher priced ones of Coromandel ; and, among the Javanese, the taste for the same articles became so prevalent during our administration of the colony, when the freedom of competition poured them in in cheapness and abundance, that hardly any one above the rank of a peasant was seen without a gala dress of this material. The very same remarks apply to woollens; for the lighter descriptions of which there

is, considering all circumstances, a great and a growing market. It is one of the prejudices of those who are but superficially acquainted with the nature of the Indian commerce, that the manufacturing industry of Europe can produce nothing suitable to the taste or necessities of the natives. No example can tend more to show how chimerical are all such notions than the one before us. Who would, from abstract reasoning, expect that, in countries under the equator, there should be a demand for the peculiar clothing of a northern climate? Yet the books of the customhouse may be confidently referred to for the extent, and for the increase of this export. The truth is, that the countries of the Indian Archipelago, refreshed by frequent showers, by land and sea breezes, and abounding in stupendous mountains, are a comfortable residence even for European settlers. On the flat plains, where the thermometer is about 80°, there is always a fresh and cooling air. On the extensive table lands, where it falls to 70° and 75°, the air is temperate and agreeable, and the inhabited portions of the mountains afford climates of every degree of cold from thence to 50°. In the first of these situations, warm clothing is often comfortable; in the second, it is always so; and, in the last, it is indispensable.

Instead of dwelling on minor articles of European manufacture demanded in the Malayan markets, such as stationary, which supplies the place of the styles and palm-leaves, once in general use, but now confined to the least civilized of the tribes,or glass and crystal ware, the use of which is nearly universal with the higher classes,-we shall generally observe, that freedom and security to the merchant are alone necessary to esta blish a beneficial, agreeable, and extensive intercourse. We may form some notion of the importance and extent of the trade, when we are told, that, in one year, 15,000 tons of shipping cleared out from the port of Batavia for that of London only.

The timorous may apprehend embarrassment to such a traffic, from the piratical character, ferocious manners, and perfidy of the East-insular tribes, so often spoken of, and always with so much exaggeration. The truth, however, is, that the East-insular tribes have a chivalrous abhorrence of blows and personal abuse; and that, when subjected to the coarse and rigorous coercion of naval discipline, it becomes so intolerable to them as to be by far the most usual source of those acts of desperation which have subjected their character, among the nations of Europe, to the odious inputations of perfidiousness, and sanguinary revenge. The writer of this article is confident that no intelligent person who will take the trouble of making himself acquaintVOL. XXIX. NO. 57. D

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ed with their character, will scruple in preferring its simple truth and ingenuousness to the degenerate virtues of the more polished inhabitants of Hindustan. In striking contrast to what is too well known to be the case there, the Malayan and European character readily assimilate under favourable circumstances; and a mutual kindness is engendered.

Piracy, to be sure, is just as common and as openly pursued in the Malay seas, as robbery in the deserts of Arabia. Nor can we wonder very much at its prevalence among a hundred nations of independent barbarians, along whose shores half the wealth of Asia is yearly passing. The real danger, however, arises, not from the desperate character of the Malayan pirate, but from the weakness and pusillanimity of their victims, the Lascars of Bengal, the dastardly Chinese, and the cowardly inhabitants of Malabar and Coromandel. A few British seamen might, on their own element, defy the whole hostile array of a Malay state ;-in incontrovertible proof of which opinion, it is only necessary to state a known truth, that in twenty years, during which the Americans have visited the same seas, not a single ship of that nation has been cut off by the Malays, though navigated, at an average of the whole, with not so many as a dozen of men each. To render the navigation secure, even to the most timid of the Asiatic traders themselves, the presence of an active European power amply suffices. During our five years' possession of the Dutch colonies, there was not an example of an European vessel cut off by pirates, and hardly, we imagine, a native one.

An extraordinary degree of protection, however, it must be admitted, is necessary here, as in all similar situations, where a commerce is carried on with men barbarous, or half civilized. A naval force is, in the peculiar condition of the Indian islands, the most natural and legitimate instrument of control and protection. But, of itself, it is certainly not adequate to the purpose of insuring the attainment and possession of that extensive commerce for which there is room. It appears to us, that two or three free ports, centrically and commodiously situated, which might serve as emporia for the whole traffic of the Archipelago, where the native trader might resort with safety, and where the distant and inexperienced merchant of Europe might quickly dispose of and obtain a cargo, would amply effect this purpose. Penang Banka, and a safe port among the many isles of the Amboyna seas, are the most eligible points which occur to us.

It is indeed under freedom, justice, and good faith alone, that this trade, in common with every other, can flourish; and a disregard for them perhaps never was more signally punished than it is known to have been in the history of this very com

merce, once so flourishing in our early knowledge of it, but nearly exterminated by violence and injustice. There is, on this subject, an interesting passage in the voyages of Dampier, with which we shall close this long article. The honest navigator, after narrating the circumstances of an atrocious and tragical attack upon a small English trading ship, proceeds, in his artless way, with the following instructive commentary.

The people of Barcalis, therefore,' says he, though they are Malayans as the rest of the country, yet they are civil enough engaged thereto by trade, for the more trade, the more civility; and, on the contrary, the more barbarity and inhumanity. For trade has a strong influence upon all people who have found the sweets of it, bringing with it so many of the conveniences of life as it does; and I believe, that even the poor Americans, who have not yet tasted the sweets of it by an honest and just commerce, even such of them as yet seem to court no more than a bare subsistence of meat and ⚫ drink, and a clout to cover their nakedness. That extensive ⚫ continent hath yet millions of inhabitants, both the Mexican and Peruvian parts, who are still ignorant of trade; and they ⚫ would be fond of it, did they once experience it, though they at present live happy enough, by enjoying such fruits of the earth as Nature has bestowed on those places where their lot ⚫is fallen;-and it may be, they are happier now, than they may hereafter be, when more known to the avaricious world. For, with trade, they will be in danger of meeting with oppression,-men not being content with a free traffic, and a just ⚫ and reasonable gain, especially in those remote countries; but they must have the current run altogether in their own channel, ་ -though to the depriving the poor natives they deal with of their natural liberty, as if all mankind were to be ruled by their laws. The islands of Sumatra and Java can sufficiently witness this; the Dutch having in a manner engrossed all the trade of these, and several of the neighbouring islands, to themselves; not that they are able to supply them with a quarter of what they want, but because they would have all the produce of them at their own disposal. Yet even in this they are short, and may be still more disappointed of the pepper trade, if other people would seek it; for the greater part of the island of Sumatra propagates this plant; and the natives ⚫ would readily comply with any who would come to trade with them, notwithstanding the great endeavours the Dutch make against it; for this island is so large, populous, and productive of pepper, that the Dutch are not able to draw all to ⚫ themselves. Indeed, this place about Barcalis is in a man