“ men, have been known to board European ihips of thirty or
, “ forty guns, in order to take poffeffion o f themr and murder,.
“ with their poignards, great part o f the crew. The Malay
“ biftory is full o f fuch en-terprifes, which mark the defperate-
“ ferocity of thefe barbarians.
“ T h e Malais who are not haves go always armed, they would
“ think themfelves difgraced i f they went abroad without their
“ poignard-s, which they call' Crit; the induftry o f this nation
“ even furpaffes itfelf, in the fabric of this deftruiftive
“ weapon.
“ .As their lives a re a perpetual round' o f agitation and tu~
“ mult, they could never endure the long flowing habits which
“ prevail' amongft the other Afiatics. The habits o f the Malai'ss
“ are exacftly adapted to their fhapes, and loaded' with a multi-
“ tude o f buttons, which faften them clofe to their bodies in
“ every part. I relate' thefe feemingly trifling obfervations, in
“ order to prove, that in climates the moft oppofite, the fafcne-
“ laws produce limilar manners, cuftoms, and prejudices ; theiir
“ effe£t is the feme too with refpetft to agriculture.
“ T he lands pofleffed by. the Malais are, in general; o f a fu -
“ perior quality ; nature feems to have taken pleafure in thefe
“ aflembl'ing her moft favorite produilions. They have not only
“ thofe to he found in the territories of Siam, but a variety o f
“ others peculiar to thefe iilands. The country is covered with.
“ odoriferous wood’s, fuch as the eagle or aloes wood, the fandal,,
“ and the CaJ/ia Oderata, a fpeeies o f cinnamon : you there
“ breathe an air impregnated with the odors o f innumerable
“ flowers o f the greateft fragrance, o f which there is a perpe-
“ tual
tnal fucceilion the year round, the Tweet flavor of which captivates
the foul, and infpires the moft voluptuous fenfations.
No traveller, wandering over the plains o f Malacca, but feels
himfelf ftrongly impelled to wifh his refidence fixed in a
place fo luxuriant in allurements, where nature triumphs
without the affiftance o f art.
“ T he Malay iilands produce various kinds of dying woods;
particularly the Sapan, which is the fame with the Brazil
wood. There are alfo a number o f gold mines, which the inhabitants
o f Sumatra and Malacca call Ophirs; fome of
which, thofe efpecially on the eaftern coaftr are richer than
thofe o f Brazil or Peru. There are likewife mines of fine
copper, mixed with gold, which the inhabitants name Tom-
bage. In the iilands of Sumatra and Banca, are mines of
calin, or fine tin ; and at Suc.cadana, in the ifland of Borneo, is-
a mine of diamonds'. Thofe iilands enjoy alfo exclufively, the-
ratin, the fagow, (or bread palm tree) the camphre, and other
precious aromatics, which we know under the names of various
fpiceriest
“ T he fea too teems with abundance o f excellent filb, together
with ambergris, pearls,.and thofe delicate birds nefts (fo
much in requeft in China)- formed in the rocks with the fpawn
of fifties and the foam o f the fea, by a fpeeies o f fmall fized
fwallow peculiar to thofe feas 5 this is of fuch an exquifite
fubftanee and flavor, that the- Chinefe long purchafed them
for their weight in gold, and ftill buy, them at an exceflive
price.
“ iN'the midft o f all this luxuriance o f nature, the Malay is
“ miferable;;