The Bugis are at present the most eminent navigators of these seas; and some idea may be formed of the extent of their transactions (begun in this instance by advances of Chinese capital) from the fact that their tripang fishery, on the coast of New Holland, employs upwards of forty vessels of from twenty to fifty tons, and exports from Celebes to China eight thousand hundred-weights in the year.

The most ancient foreign commerce of the islands was in all probability with the Chinese; but it is only since the advent of the Europeans that this industrious people have made their appearance as colonists. The articles of importation are, black tea, coarse porcelain, iron culinary vessels, cotton cloths, raw silk, brass ware, paper, books, paints, shoes, fans, umbrellas, and toys; and the whole trade, principally carried on with Manilla and Batavia, was stated to employ thirty thousand tons of shipping before the rise of Singapore into importance.

That

The trade with the Talingas of south-western India is likewise of some antiquity, but has probably fallen off as the influence of the Anglo-Indians has extended. It introduces into the Archipelago, besides minor articles, tobacco, blue cotton cloths, and cotton chintzes. with the Arabs of the Red Sea, and of Mocha, Jeddah, and Aden, was greatly injured by the discovery of the route to India by the Cape; but both this and the Malabar intercourse gave a new class of settlers to the Indian islands, the former exhibiting much energy and enterprise. The few Arab vessels that are still left in the trade make a considerable part of their freight by Mahomedan passengers, who perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and return in a few years in the odour of sanctity to their native islands. The intercourse of the islands with Bengal and the Coromandel coast

direct is carried on by vessels called Malay traders of from two to three hundred tons burthen, and consists chiefly in the interchange of opium and cotton goods for gold, tin, and pepper. With America there is no interchange worth mention, because that great country produces little that can be of any advantage to the Indian islanders; although the trade, notwithstanding, considerable in itself and daily increasing, teaches a “great moral lesson" which it is wonderful to think should be lost even upon Holland. In the year 1784, the Anglo-American flag was seen for the first time in the ports of India, and ever since, steering clear of the delusions that have governed the old world, it has pursued a tranquil and triumphant career. Without a foot of territory, without lending themselves to a single cabal among the natives, the motto of the republicans is "conciliation;" and this has proved to these wandering traders a talisman of success— not the less peaceable or honourable for its being guaranteed by the proud stripes of the Union waving from a Yankee frigate in the distance.

Within the Archipelago, the sales in 1841 of the Dutch East India Company of the produce of Java appears by the official return to have embraced fifty-five million kilogrammes of coffee, fifty million kilogrammes of sugar, and eight hundred and forty-six thousand, two hundred and ninety kilogrammes of indigo. “When it is remembered," say the Dutch journals, " that only eight years' labour have produced such a marvellous increase in the production of these possessions, since in 1833 the sales made by the Company did not reach six million six hundred or seven million kilogrammes of sugar, and twelve million kilogrammes of coffee, with little knowledge of indigo, it must be evident what an invaluable source of revenue they are to Holland."

It now only remains for us, on this subject, to notice the intercourse of the islands with Singapore, that great free entrepôt of the Archipelago, which, in, the short space of twenty years, has gathered into its harbours a trade amounting to five millions sterling. It would be impossible to render such details interesting to Europeans, to whom four-fifths even of the names of places would be both new and strange; and we have therefore compressed from a well-informed local journal,* the following statement of the position of this Anglo-Indian-Chinese-Malay-Bugis city, leaving out all insignificant ports, and other details not absolutely necessary in the general picture it is the object of our humble labours to draw.

The imports into Singapore from Borneo in 1842-43 consisted of antimony ore, 7,478 piculs; gold, &c. The exports for the same year amounted to 296,637 dollars, showing a decrease of 22,311 dollars. The most important were British cotton goods, 8,908 corges and 15 dozen; opium, 227 chests; tea, 1,928 boxes and 52 piculs; and specie equal to 34,202 dollars.

During this period eighty-eight boats, equal to 2,701 tons, arrived from Borneo.

The ports in Borneo, with which trade is principally carried on, are Brunai, or Borneo Proper, Banjermassin, Pontianak, Sambas, Coti, Passier, Peggotan, and Sarawak. The products commonly brought to Singapore are rattans, birds' nests, bees' wax, tortoise-shell, gold-dust and diamonds, tripang, pearl and raw sago, camphor, rice and paddy, mother-of-pearl-shells, garro and lakha woods, paper, sea-weed, mats, ebony, and antimony ore. The boats which come from the southern and eastern ports are commonly manned by Bugis, the principal carriers in the Archipelago, and, next to the *Singapore Free Press.

Chinese the most enterprising and industrious of the traders in these regions. They are considerably less tainted with piracy than the Malays.

The commerce with Manilla continues to increase. During 1842-43 the gross imports were valued at 323,932 dollars. The most important articles consisted of hemp and ropes, 2,014 piculs; cigars, 20,770,100; sugar, 6,546 piculs; tea, 585 piculs; and sapan wood, 19,306 piculs; it would also appear 5,800 pieces of British piece goods were imported, probably on account of their being unsuitable for the Manilla market. The exports amounted to 127,315 dollars. The chief articles were opium, 49 chests; iron, 3,762 piculs; and British cotton goods, 88 dozens, 60 corges, and 4,189 pieces.

Celebes is the parent country of the Bugis, which name, though properly belonging only to one of the tribes of Celebes, is applied generally to all traders from that island, from the east and south-east coasts of Borneo, and from the islands to the southward and eastward of it. They usually bring sarongs, the produce of their own looms-rattans, wax, tortoise-shell, pearl-shells, sea-weed, tripang, coffee, birds' nests, sandal and bookoo woods, and other articles of minor importance. The number of vessels arriving averages about fifty or sixty annually.

The islands to the eastward and southward of Celebes, from which the Bugis bring cargoes to this port, are chiefly Bootoon, Enday or Flores, Selayer, Timor, Booroo, Lombok, Sumbawa, Amboy na, Ceram, and the Aroos and Papua. The articles are the same as those from Celebes, with the addition of cajepoot oil, birds of paradise, and wild nutmegs. The vessels arriving from these places may average about thirty a year. The island of Balli contains several ports, from which upwards of fifty prows annually arrive.

The imports from these islands in 1842-43 were valued at 383,495 dollars, being a slight increase over the previous year. They consisted of coffee, 101 piculs; rice, 96,211 piculs; tobacco, 2,449 piculs. The gross value of the exports amounted to 189,333 dollars. They were, British goods, 6,193 pieces, and 177 corges; opium, 217 chests; and copper tokens valued at 27,079 dollars.

The various ports on the east coast of Sumatra furnish the greatest number of native craft frequenting Singapore, amounting on an average to between three and four hundred annually. Most of these boats come from Apong, Manda, Rantow, and Tabing Tingie, with raw sago. The next in number are those from Campar, Jambie, and Siac, bringing coffee, rice, wax, rattans, ivory, gold-dust, benzoin, dragon's blood, lakha wood, and a few other articles. From Palembang come the lacquered basons and ceree boxes so much in request among the natives; and the best rattan mats are made here. The coast near Siac furnishes in great abundance the trubo, or fish-roe, so universally used, and affords the principal supply of sago, which has now become an article of commerce at Singapore.

The imports from Sumatra, in the year 1842-43, amounted to 284,000 dollars. They were bees' wax, 611 piculs; benzoin, 852 piculs; betel nut, 9,324 piculs; coffee, 2,581 piculs; cotton, 3,660 piculs; raw sago, 201,910 bundles; and specie equal to 57,810 dollars; gold-dust, 677 bungals, valued at 19,705 dollars; rice, 8,153 piculs; pepper, 71,987 piculs, &c. The exports amounted to 188,922. The chief were British goods 5,285 pieces, and 336 corges; country, ditto, 2,116 corges; China crockery, valued at 9,609 dollars; raw silk, 43