THE
MALAY ARCHIPELAGO
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
TE we look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere,
we shall perceive between Asia and Australia
a number of large and small islands, forming, a connected
group distinct from those great masses of land, and having
little connexion with either of them. Situated upon the
Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the great tropical
oceans, this region enjoys a climate more uniformly hot and
moist than almost any other part of the. globe, and teems
with natural productions which are elsewhere unknown.
The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are
here indigenous. It produces the giant flowers of the
Rafflesia, the great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes
among the butterfly tribes), the man-like Orang-Utan, and
the gorgeous Birds of, Paradise. I t is inhabited by a
peculiar and interesting race of mankind—the Malay,
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