“ Brazils; or in throwing up, by some sudden and subse-
“ quent convulsion, the island of Amsterdam; . or in con-
“ tinuing to this hour, through the means of animated beings,
“ the formation of new islands in the strait of Sunda.”
The number and the magnitude of those wonderful fabrics,
dispersed over the Eastern ocean, and daily increasing in
bulk and extent, furnish no weak support to that theory
which supposes all marbles, limestones, and every species of
calcareous rock, to have been the production of animated
beings; a theory that is rendered still more plausible from the
myriads of minute shells found in many of them, and of
which some of the most beautiful of the marbles are almost
wholly composed.
I t cannot escape observation that no sooner have the points
of the coral rocks reached the surface, so as to form a barrier
for the accretion of adventitious matter floating on the waves,
and by its accumulation rise into an islet, than the seeds of
the vegetable world burst into life : for all the islands of coral
formation, perhaps without a single exception, are covered
with plants. I f then it really be the fact that new islands are
thus continually forming, we shall be borne out in the conclusion
that a combination of animal and calcareous matter
is more favourable to the production and growth of vegetables
than the materials of such newly created islands as owe
their origin to subterraneous fires. It would be inconsistent
to suppose that, where new surfaces are continually
arising and yet no nakedness appears, the same slow progress
¿ a d gradually taken place from the humble and almost unorganized
lichen to the tall tree of the forest, which is considered
to be the ordinary and gradual process of vegetation
in volcanic countries.
In no port nor harbour, since our departure from Portsmouth,
had we met with so great a number of shippmg as
were collected in the bay of Batavia. Large Dutch India-
men, mostly dismantled for wank of men; English trading
vessels from Bengal, Madras, and Bombay; immense Chinese
junks, whose singular forms seemed to bespeak an antiquity
as remote as that of Noah’s ark ; Malay proas, and Javanese
canoes; with three or four French ships carrying into the
Eastern world, in addition to the natural products of their
country, the monstrous doctrines of the Rights of Man, were
promiscuously riding at anchor in the road of Batavia. The
practical part of these novel doctrines was grievously complained
of by the officers of one of the French ships. The
crew, it seems, had one day taken it into their heads that,
by virtue of the sacred and inalienable principle of all men
being equal, they had a right to enjoy as good a dinner as
their officers, no matter who should pay for it; and accordingly,
having followed the dishes into the cabin, they seated
themselves at table, inviting, in the most obliging manner,
the Captain and other officers to partake of their own dinner
with them. These gentlemen, however, finding their authority
and their property at stake, thought it prudent to make
application to the government of Batavia for a few German
troops to instruct their crew in the rights of discipline, and
in the duties of obedience and subordination.