Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/172

 156 COMMERCE WITH guage, habits, or manuers of such a colony. For- mosa, as I have noticed in another place, an island within twenty leagues of the coast of the most com- mercial province of the empire, was, by the confes- sion of the Chinese, only discovered by them, and that too by accident, as late as the year 1430, and was not occupied until 231 years thereafter, when the genius of European manners and institutions had rendered it a comfortable and safe abode. In the same way the Philippines, neglected by them in all previous periods of their own history, were coveted when the Spaniards had established some degree of tranquillity within them, and rendered them a safe asylum for this timid and unenterprising race. The Chinese population of Java was established under the very same circumstances. Few or none had the courage to settle under the turbulent govern- ment of the natives, but the Dutch had been scarcely established when there was an inundation of Chinese sett!- rs, and, in little more than a cen- tury, their masters considered it necessary to mas- sacre them by thousands to lessen their redundan- cy. The political institutions of the Chinese are remarkable among those of Asiatic people, for the uncommon share of tranquillity they are found, by experience, capable df maintaining, and for the secu- rity they thus afford to life and property. This, in a fertile country, and favourable situation, has been quite adequate to produce an immense popu-