M A L A Y A N I S L E S .
T ■ '1H O SE who confult the map o f this portion o f the
globe, will inftantly perceive the effe£t o f the rapid dif-
A charge'of the waters after the deftruition o f the old
world by the deluge, aided by volcanic fury. Volcanoes, or vef-
tiges of volcanoes, are to be feen in moft parts to this day;
amazing caverns, mountains piled upon mountains, with all the
teftimonies of the mighty confufion; we know not the antecedent
form, but it-was evidently lhattered by that great event.
From the top of the bay of Bengal to the very pole, it fwept
every thing before it, and left a Vaft expanfe -of ocean, uninterrupted
by any land, except the diminutive fpots of Kergtielin
iflands, or the lefler fpeck of iAmfierdatn and St. Paulo.
From Gape Negrais, the fouthern point o f Pegu, the waters
feetn to have been impelled towards the vaft Pacific Ocean.
T he iiles of Andaman and Nicobar firft ihew that tendency in a
flight degree ; all the peninfula o f Malacca was affeited in a
higher. The ifland o f Sumatra follows the curvature o f that
part of the continent. At Java it begins to ihew the fury of the
Yoi,. IV. B ’ attra£led