Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/165

 COMMERCE OF THE ARCHIPELAOO. 149 nations of barbarians to the gates of Rome, the in- habitants of which were ignorant of the countries which produced them, and of the means by which they obtained them. The spices obtained by these adventurers at the eastern extremity of the Archi- pelago were carried to the emporia of the west, to Malacca, Achin, and some of the ports of Java, where they were purchased, in the earHer ages of the commerce, by the. Hindus, and in later times by these, jointly with the Arabs. The war pursued by European nations against the commerce and industry of the native inhabit- ants, suppressed the traffic of the Javanese and Malays, who, from their situation, fell more imme- diately within their power. The people of Cele- bes are now the most considerable and enterpris- ing of the navigators of the Indian islands, and among them the ^Bugis of TVqjii are the most dis- tinguished. Some account of their adventures, therefore, will prove interesting. The original country of these people is the banks of the great fresh water lake Tapara-karaja, in the south-west^ em limb of Celebes, and towards the northern part of that limb. Europeans are wholly unacquainted with the nature of this country ; but from the ana- logy of other situations, we may safely infer, that a territory which has given rise to so much compara- tive civilization, and so much mercantile enter- prise, is a land of considerable fertility. There is