Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/213

 ASIATIC NATIONS. 197 then a few Hindus. Neither this branch of fo- reign commerce, nor any other, is ever conducted by the navigators of the Indian islands. It had been an erroneous notion formed respecting the Hindu character, from a limited knowledge of the Hindu tribes or nations, and perhaps mostly from an experience of the people of Bengal, that they were interdicted by their religion from performing sea voyages. This error is now corrected from our knowledge that Hindus occasionally form a portion of the crews of the ships from Telinga, and that Hindu passengers come yearly in them, who sojourn for a time in the Archipelago. At Ma- lacca, indeed, as mentioned in another part of this work, these Hindus have even colonized. The Telingas, though less robust, active, and indus- trious, than the Chinese, are more expert and skil- ful navigators. They have learned from the Arabs, who had their knowledge of the Greeks, to take the sun's altitude with the forestafF, and they use the more perfect compass of the Europeans instead of the rude imitation of it followed by the Chinese. Still the monsoons are necessary to their voyages, as well as to those of all other oriental navigators. The Indian traders quit their ports in the south- west monsoon, which blows from April to October, and return with the north-east monsoon, which prevails in the opposite half of the year. The length of the voyage depends upon the extent ta