massacred. Pepper abounds in the interior, with the gum called the dragon's blood,, camphor, and sandal wood. Edible birds' nests are abundant. Gold is found in the interior country; where there are also said to be diamonds, but inferior to those of Golconda. The Ourang Outang abounds. The natives are called Biajos, but their language has not been explained. The town, called Borneo, on the N. W. consists of about 3000 houses, built on posts fixed in rafts, which are moored to the shore, and moved from place to place at pleasure.* The Chinese are the chief traders to Borneo.

This large island is surrounded with many small isles, which, from their relation to this comparative continent, may be termed Bornean islands.

III. THE MANILLAS, OR PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

This large group was discovered by Magalhaens in 1521, who called them the archipelago of St. Lazarus; but they were afterwards styled the Philippines, in honor of that infamous tyrant Philip II. of Spain. They contain 3,800,000 inhabitants.f

Luzon is the largest and most important of these isles, being near 500 miles in length, by about 100 of medial breadth. The na tives, who are of a mild character, are called Tagals, like all those of the Philippines, and seem of Malay origin. They are tall and well made, wearing only a kind of shirts with loose drawers, but the dress of the women is chiefly a large mantle, and their black and beautiful hair sometimes reaches the ground, the complexion being à deep tawney. The houses are of bamboo covered with palm leaves, raised on pillars to the height of 8 or 10 feet. The chief food is rice and salted fish. The city of Manilla is well built and fortified, but a third part is occupied by convents: the number of Christian inhabitants is computed at 12,000. Between this city and Acapulco, nearly in the same parallel on the W. of Mexico, was conducted a celebrated commerce through a space of about 140 degrees, or about 8400 geographical miles, more than one third of the circumference of the globe.

Next in size is Mindanao, a beautiful and fertile island, the chief Spanish settlement being at Sambuang in the S. W. This island is in general mountainous; but the vales consist of a rich black mould, watered with the purest rivulets.

The other chief Philippines are Pulawain, Mindoro, Pani Buglas or isle of Negroes, Zebu, Leyt, or Leita, and Samar. On the E. of Zebu is the small isle of Mactan, where the celebrated navigator Magalhaens was slain. These isles present wild boars, deer, and useful animals of various kinds; and among vegetables the bread fruit must not be forgotten, which first appears on the eastern coasts of Sumatra, and thence extends its benefits through innumerable islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Pennant's Outlines, iv. 52.

+ Hissel.

Sonnerat, ii. 108.

IV. THE CELEBEZIAN ISLES.

Celebez is more than 600 miles long, but not above 60 miles broad, containing about 92,000 square miles, and 3,000,000 inhabitants, lon. from 116° to 124° E. lat. 1 30 to 5 30 N. This island is lofty and mountainous, especially towards the centre, and there are several active volcanoes. The natives, commonly called Macassars, often degrade their courage in the quality of freebooters, attacking vessels with surprising desperation, and often with lances, or arrows poisoned with the juice of the notorious tree calied upas. Their houses are raised on pillars, as usual, on account of the rainy season, or W. monsoon, from November till March.

Around Celebez are many small isles, mostly inhabited, and governed by chiefs.

V. THE SPICE ISLANDS, INCLUDING THE MOLUCCAS.

The chief Spice Islands are Gilolo, Ceram, and Bouro, with Mortay, Oubi, Mysol, that of Amboyna, and the group of Banda, with such small isles as approximate nearer to these than to the Celebezian group, or Sumatran chain.

Gilolo is about 230 miles in length; the breadth seldom above 40. The shores are low: the interior rises to high peaks. The sultans of Ternat and Tidore now share this large isle between them. One of the chief towns is Tatany, on a point or small promontory of the eastern limb. The bread fruit is frequent in Gilolo, with the sago tree. The natives are industrious, particularly in weaving.

Ceram is about 190 miles in length by 40 in breadth; low towards the shore, but with inland mountains, producing clove trees, and large forests of the sago tree.

Bouro is about 90 miles in length, by 50 in breadth. It rises suddenly from a deep sea, being encompassed as with a wall. The interior mountains are lofty.

Of Mortay, Mysol, and Oubi, little is known.

The proper Moluccas are Ternat, Tidore, Motir, Makian, and Batchian.

The largest is Batchian, being governed by a sultan, who is likewise sovereign of Oubi and Ceram, with Goram, a little isle S. E. of Ceram, reputed the most castorn boundary of the Mahometan faith. This monarch had a pension from the Dutch, either for the destruction or supply of nutmegs, but is otherwise little subservient. Batchian rises into woody hills; and on the shores, as in most isles of this archipelago, there are prodigious rocks of coral, of great variety and beauty. Makian is a small isle to the N. of Batchian, and rises like a high conic mountain from the sea. This was regarded as the chief Dutch settlement before Amboyna became the metropolis of the Moluccas. Next is Motir, formerly

said to be the seat of Venus and voluptuousness. In Tidore there are 25 mosques; and the sultan, as already mentioned, possesses also the south of Gilolo, and claims tribute from Mysol.

Ternat is the most northern and important of the Moluccas, though it scarcely exceed 24 miles in circumference. The sultan controls Makian and Motir, with the north of Gilolo, Mortay, and even some Celebezian isles, and part of Papua, whence he receives a tribute of gold, amber, and birds of Paradise. Ternat consists chiefly of high land, abounding with streams from the mountains. Amboyna is about 60 miles in length from N. to S. and on the west side there is a large bay, which divides it into two limbs or peninsulas. On the eastern side is another bay, with a bad harbor, where the Portuguese erected their chief fortress, Victoria. The town of Amboyna, the capital of the isle, stands near the S. W. extremity and is neatly built; the houses, on account of the frequent earthquakes, seldom exceed one floor. The face of this island is beautiful, woody mountains and verdant vales being interspersed with hamlets, and enriched by cultivation.* The clove tree grows to the height of about 40 or 50 feet, with spreading branches and long pointed leaves. In deep sheltered vales some trees will produce 30 pounds weight annually, the chief crop being from November to February. The soil is mostly a reddish clay, but in the vales blackish and sandy. When Amboyna was recently seized by the English,f it was found, with its dependencies, to contain 45,252 souls, of which 17,813 were Protestants, the rest Mahometans, except a few Chinese and savages. The Dutch are tolerably polished, this being the next settlement to Batavia in wealth and consequence. The natives cannot be praised, they differ little from other Malays; and when intoxicated with opium will commit any crime.

Banda, or Lantor, is the chief isle of a group, which comprises 6 or 7 others; it does not exceed 8 miles in length, from W. to E. and the greatest breadth at its eastern extremity may be 5 miles. The nutmeg tree is the principal object of cultivation in these isles; and flourishes not only in the rich black mould, but even amidst the lavas of Gonong, which is the highest isle, the summit being 1940 feet above the sea. When the English seized these isles in 1796, the annual produce was about 163,000 pounds of nutmegs and 46,000 pounds of mace. The nutmeg tree grows to the size of a pear tree, the leaves resembling those of the laurel, and bears fruit from the age of 10 to 100 years.

The inhabitants of the Banda isles were found to be 5763. The English were expelled from Lantor, and Rohn, or Pulo Rohn,

An account of the Spice Islands, since they have been in the possession of Great Britain. Asiatic Register, 1800, p. 200. There was a most violent earthquake in 1755.

The islands of Amboyna and Banda were taken without resistance in February and March, 1796, by the English admiral Rainier.

'The hurricane and earthquake, 1778, almost annihilated the nutmeg trees in Banda, so that the Dutch have become the dupes of their own avarice. From 1796 to 1798 the English East India Company imported 817,312 lb. cloves, 93,732 lb. nutmegs, 46,730 lb, mace, besides private trade, amounting to about a third part of the above, Stavorinus, ii. 418.

prior to the massacre of Amboyna; but seized the whole Spice Islands in 1796, and restored them to their Batavian masters by the treaty with France, 1801. In 1810, they were again taken by the British, in whose possession they now remain.

AUSTRALASIA.

AUSTRALASIA, as already bounded, contains the following

countries:

1. The central and chief land of New-Holland, with any isles which may be discovered in the adjacent Indian ocean, 20 degrees to the W. and between 20 and 30 degrees to the E. including particularly all the large islands that follow:

2. Papua, or New-Guinea.

3. New-Britain and New-Ireland, with the Solomon Isles.

4. New-Caledonia, and the New-Hebudes.

5. New-Zealand.

6. The large island called Van Diemen's Land, recently discovered to be separated from New-Holland by a strait, or rather channel, called Bass's strait.

I. NEW-HOLLAND.

Some suppose that this extensive region, when more thoroughly investigated, will be found to consist of two, three, or more vast islands, intersected by narrow seas. However this be, the most recent and authentic charts still indicate New-Holland as a country fully entitled to the appellation of a continent. The length from E. to W. is about 2750 miles. The breadth 1960 miles. Europe, the smallest of the ancient continents, is supposed to be about 3500 miles in its utmost length, and its greatest breadth 2350. NewHolland, appears, therefore, to be a quarter less than Europe.

The Dutch are regarded by Des Brosses, as the chief discoverers of Australasia, between the year 1616 and 1644.*

The eastern coast having been carefully examined by Cook, was formally taken possession of in the name of the king of Great Britain, 1770. On the close of the American war, it being difficult to select a proper place of transportation for criminals sentenced to that punishment by the laws of their country, this new territory was at length preferred, in 1786, and the first ship sailed from. Spithead on the 30th January, 1787, and arrived on the 20th of the same month in the following year. Botany Bay being found to be a station of interior advantages to what were expected, and no spot appearing proper for the colony, it was immediately resolved by governor Phillip to transfer it to another excellent inlet, about 12 miles farther to the north, called Port Jackson, on the south side cí

Des Brosses, i, 420.

which, at a spot called Sidney Cove, this settlement is now fixed. Port Jackson is one of the noblest harbors in the world, extending about 14 miles in length, with numerous creeks or coves.

Division. The name of Cumberland county is given by the government to the settlement at Sidney Cove. It is about 50 miles in length, and 30 in breadth. The chief place of settlement, is at Sidney Cove, near the centre, where a town has been regularly laid out, and built. The principal streets are 200 feet wide. The climate is said to be equal to the finest in Europe.

Inhabitants. The inhabitants on the E. coast are merely divided into families, the senior being styled Be-ana, or father. Each family or tribe has a particular place of residence, and is distinguished by adding gal to the name of the place; thus the southern shore of Botany Bay is called Gwca, and the tribe there Gwea-gal. No religion whatever is known, though they have a faint idea of a future existence, and think their people return to the clouds, whence they originally fell. They are of a low stature, and ill made. Some are nearly as black as African negroes, while others exhibit a copper or Malay color, but the hair is long, not woolly like the AfriTheir noses are flat, nostrils wide, sunk eyes, thick brows and lips, with a mouth of prodigious width, but the teeth white and

can.

even.

The huts are most rudely constructed of the bark of trees, in the form of an oven, the fire being at the entrance.

Climate and Seasons. From its situation, on the southern side of the equator, the seasons are like those of the southern part of Africa and America, the reverse of those in Europe; the summer cor. responding with our winter, and the spring with autumn. Mr, Collins found the weather in December very hot, but the climate was allowed to be fine and salubrious. The rains were heavy, appearing to fall chiefly about the full and change of the moon; and at intervals there were storms of thunder and lightning.

Face of the Country. It would be idle to attempt any delincation of the general aspect of this country. The small portion known seems hilly, but not mountainous. The soil around Botany Bay is black and fat, and fertile of plants, whence the name arose.

Rivers and Mountains. Concerning the rivers, lakes, and mountains of New-Holland there is little information. Nepean river in New-South-Wales, is 34 miles S. W. of Port Hunter, and 46 from the town of Paramatta. The Paramatta river passes the town of this name, which is the residence of the missionary, and is a flourishing place. A chain of mountains is said to run N. and S. between 50 and 60 miles inland, but not easily accessible on account of numerous deep ravines.

Islands. Norfolk Island lies in S. lat. 29 4, E. lon. 168 12; at the distance of 1000 miles N. E. of Port Jackson, containing 11,000 acres of an excellent soil; it is 7 leagues in circumference, discovered by Capt. Cook, in 1774. The island is very hilly. The highest peak, named Mount Pitt, is 1200 feet high. The cliff's round the coast are 240 feet perpendicular. In February, 1788, 36 persons from the New-Holland colony took possession of this