go the rooted habits of savage life,—of imitating civilized
men,—and of establishing the authority of
social order. Were the principle of supplying them
without restriction acted upon, the Indian Islands
would afford a great market for the warlike stores of
the civilized and manufacturing nations of Europe.
Small brass cannon, gunpowder, and muskets, are
all in demand. The Arab and Chinese traders
purchase cannon and blunderbusses for the protection
of their vessels from the attacks of pirates. Our
common powder in barrels is purchased with avidity,
and an old musket will generally sell for from
10 to 12 Spanish dollars, or from 45s. to 54s.
Among the colonists of Java there is a demand for
neat fowling-pieces, such as are manufactured at
Birmingham, and the taste for them is extending
to the native chiefs, who have also a taste, like the
Turks and Persians, for handsome pistols.
There is no article of our manufactures consumed
in the Indian Islands upon which the fall
of prices has produced so remarkable an effect in
extending consumption as glass ■'ware. A few
years ago, a trifling quantity was consumed by the
European colonists, and even those living among
the natives could hardly have suspected that they
would have become already considerable consumers
of this description of manufacture. The Chinese
of Java, the Javanese, and even many of the inhabitants
of the more distant islands to the eastward,
now use a variety of our glass and crystal manufactures.
The most suitable kinds are vase-shaped
lamps, candle shades, small neat lustres, glass-ware
for the table, common looking-glasses, formerly
brought of a bad kind from China ; convex, concave,
and ordinary mirrors, shewy, but not expensive.
Like our glass-ware, our earthenware also has,
within the last two or three years past, come
into request. The Indian Islanders and Chinese
Colonists had always required and received a supply
of coarse porcelain from China. Common table
sets of blue and white earthenware already sell in
considerable quantities, and finer kinds, of every
variety of pattern, are in more limited demand.
Independent of the superior cheapness and better
quality of our earthenware, we possess one great
advantage over the Chinese importer. The outward
bound freight, as at least one-fourth of the
tonnage is not occupied, is a mere trifle ; whereas
the freight of this bulky commodity from China
is considerable, even at present, from the nature of
the investments, and would be much greater if teas
were imported as the principal cargos, as would
certainly be the case in a natural and unrestricted
state of the trade.
There is a market for many minor articles, which
it will be unnecessary to describe, such as a variety
of medicinal drugs, as cinchona, calomel, &c. with