Chinese, it is well known," says M. de Labillardiere, "received spices from the Moluccas many ages before these islands were seized upon by the Europeans."* And for ages past the Malays have had a fishery established on the north coast of New Holland, which they visit annually with a large fleet of proas, to the number of two hundred sail and upwards, in search of a marine slug, called trepang or bêche de la mer, which they cure for the China market.

We are

Voyage de M. D'Entrecasteaux, p. 241.

The north coast of New Holland is called by the Malays Marega, and has been known to them for many years. A fleet, to the number of 200 proas, annually leaves Macassar for this fishery it sails in January during the westerly monsoon, and coasts from island to island, until it reaches the north-east end of Timor, when it steers S. E. and S. S. E., which courses carry them to the coast of New Holland: the body of the fleet then steers eastward, leaving here and there a division of fifteen or sixteen proas under the command of an inferior rajah, who leads the fleet, and is always implicitly obeyed. His proa is the only vessel that is provided with a compass: it has also one or two swivels or small guns, and is perhaps armed with muskets. Their provisions chiefly consist of rice and cocoa-nuts; and their water, which during the westerly monsoon is easily replenished on all parts of the coast, is carried in joints of bamboo. The method of curing the trepang is thus described by Captain Flinders :-" They get the trepang-a marine slug of about six or eight inches in length-by diving in from three to eight fathoms

therefore warranted to conclude that the same adventurous spirit, which had ascertained the exist

water; and where it is abundant, a man will bring up eight or ten at a time. The mode of preserving it is this: the animal is split down on one side, boiled, and pressed with a weight of stones ; then stretched open by slips of bamboo, dried in the sun, and afterwards in smoke; when it is fit to be put away in bags, but requires frequent exposure to the sun. A thousand trepang make a picol, of about 125 Dutch pounds; and 100 picols are a cargo for a proa. It is carried to Timor and sold to the Chinese, who meet them there; and when all the proas are assembled, the fleet returns to Macassar. By Timor, seemed to be meant Timor-laoet; for, when I inquired concerning the English, Dutch, and Portuguese there, Pobasso (the rajah in command) knew nothing of them: he had heard of Coepang, a Dutch settlement, but said it was upon another island. There are two kinds of trepang. The black, called baato, is sold to the Chinese for forty dollars the picol; the white, or gray, called koro, is worth no more than twenty. The baato seems to be what we found upon the coral reefs near the Northumberland Islands; and were a colony established in Broad Sound, or Shoal-water Bay, it might perhaps derive considerable advantage from the trepang. In the Gulf of Carpentaria we did not observe any other than the gray slug.

"After having fished along the coast to the eastward until the westerly monsoon breaks up, they return, and by the last day of May each detached fleet leaves the coast without waiting to collect into one body. On their return they steer N. W., which brings them to some part of Timor, from whence they easily retrace their steps to Macassar, where the Chinese traders meet them and purchase their cargoes. At this time (1818) the value of the trepang was from forty to fifty dollars a picol; so that if each vessel returns with one hundred picols of trepang, her cargo will be worth five thousand dollars. Besides trepang, they trade

ence of these distant regions, and rendered them available for the purposes of mercantile speculation, would not only lead enterprising individuals of the Malayan nation to the successive discovery and settlement of all the islands of the Indian Archipelago, at a comparatively early period in the history of the world, but induce them to launch out, like Columbus, in quest of unknown lands into the boundless Pacific. Maritime enterprise is the characteristic of islanders ; and we are warranted to believe, from instances that have occurred within the memory of man, that voyages of discovery have, in all past ages, been undertaken by that adventurous race, whose offspring now inhabit the South Sea Islands, on the most indistinct idea of the existence of any land in the direction of their intended course. A solitary native of the Fiji Islands had been driven to sea by some sudden storm, when fishing in his canoe on the coast, and had landed at length on the Friendly

in sharks' fins and birds' nests, the latter being worth about three thousand dollars the picol."-Survey of the Northern and Western coasts of Australia, by Captain King, R. N.; pages 135-138.

Islands, three hundred and sixty miles from his native isle. In such circumstances no European, unacquainted with the science of navigation, would have ventured to put to sea in search of the distant island from which the stranger had been accidentally driven. But the thoughtless Polynesian, fired by the spirit of adventure, disregards the suggestions of prudence, and fearlessly embarks on an expedition as wild as Don Quixote's. Stimulated, accordingly, by the intelligence he had received from the stranger, Tooi Hata Fatai, a chief of the Friendly Islands, set sail for the Fiji Islands some time afterwards, with two hundred and fifty followers, in three large canoes, each of which must have carried upwards of eighty men with provisions for the voyage.

In such voyages, however, the unskilfulness of the pilot, or the unexpected change of the wind, would often carry the adventurous islanders far beyond their reckoning; and in such circumstances they would either founder at sea, or perish of hunger, or be driven they knew not whither, till they reached some unknown and previously un

discovered island. In the latter case, they would gladly settle on the new-found land, fearful of again trusting themselves to the ocean, and entirely ignorant as to what course they should steer for their native isle.*

This mode of accounting for the gradual peopling of the South Sea Islands is accordant with known facts; for numerous adventurers have been

* "About the time of the commencement of the mission, an American seaman of the name of Robert, accompanied by a number of natives, undertook to convey some books from Rurutu to Rimatara, a distance of about seventy miles. He reached Rimatara in safety; but, on returning, was driven out of his course, and perished with several of his companions. The day after his death the boat was picked up by a vessel, about two hundred miles distant from the island; and, by proper treatment, such of the crew as were still alive recovered from the weakness and exhaustion which famine had induced."-Polynesian Researches, vol. 1. p. 392.

"The English missionary from Tahiti was the first foreigner that ever landed on the island of Rapa; but many years before his arrival, an inhabitant of some other island, the only survivor of the party with whom he sailed from his native shores, had been by tempestuous weather drifted to the island, and was found there by the native teachers who first went from Tahiti. His name was Mapuagua, and that of his country Manganeva; which he stated was much larger than Rapa, and situated in a south-easterly direction. The people he described as numerous, and much tattooed; the name of one of their gods the same as that of one formerly worshipped by the Tahitians."-Polynesian Researches, vol. 1. p. 374.