Palawan, Negros, Samar, Mindoro, Panay, Leyte,
and Zebu. Of the relative importance, value, and
populousness of the different islands, the size is by
no means a just test, as a slight knowledge of those
enumerated wili soon teach us. The principal advantage
of the great islands arises from their capacity
of affording large alluvial tracts, and considerable
rivers, both of them from the facilities afforded
by them for raising a supply of food, the principal
circumstances which have contributed to promote
population and civilization. We discover, that the
great tribes which have influenced the destinies
of the inferior ones,, have all had their origin in the
larger islands, and the most considerable in the
most fertile. Many valuable islands of small size
are excluded from the above enumeration, which
will in the sequel demand a particular account.
Besides such, the inspection of the map will discover
a vast number of minute isles and islets, of
which it may truly be said that they are innumerable.
The whole Archipelago is arranged into groups
and chains of islands, with here and there a great
island intervening. The islands are upon the whole
thickly strewed, which gives* rise to innumerable
straits and passages which would occasion from their
intricacy a dangerous navigation, were the seas of
the Archipelago not distinguished, beyond all others,
by the proximity of extensive tracts of land,—by
6
their pacific nature,—and by the uniformity of the
prevailing winds and currents.
Five portions of the ocean which encompass or
intersect the different islands of the Archipelago
are of considerable extent, and tolerably free from
islands. To these European navigators have given
the name of seas. The first of these in extent
is that portion of the China sea which lies between
Borneo and the Malay peninsula; the second the
tract of waters between Borneo and Java called
the Java seas; the third that lying between
Celebes on one side, Boeroe and Ceram on the
other, and the chain of islands to the south, of
which Timur and Timurlant are the most conspicuous
; the fourth is the clear tract of ocean lying
between Celebes and Borneo to the south and west,
and Mindanao and the Sooloo chain of isles to
the north, and which takes its name from the latter;
and the fifth and, last the basin formed by the Sooloo
chain, Borneo, Palawan, the south-west side of
the Philippines, and Mindanao.
The Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean, wash
the western shores of the Archipelago, the Great
Pacific its southern and eastern shores, and the
China sea its northern. The western boundary of
the Archipelago is formed by the Malayan peninsula
and Sumatra. Here there are two approaches only,
viz. the Straits of Malacca and Sunda. The southern
boundary of the Archipelago isformedby along chain