Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/214

 19y COMMERCE WITH which the traders penetrate into the islands of the Archipelago, but to the nearest points, often does not exceed nine or ten days. It is usually per- formed with as much safety as expedition, notwith- standing the real unskilfulness of the voyagers, a fact which may teach us to moderate any prepos- sessions we might entertain regarding the difficul- ties which the early Hindus might have encounter- ed in candying their religion to the Indian islands, or in bringing the spices of the latter back to their own country. The monsoons have always made up, in some measure, to the orientals, for the want of that science, ingenuity, invention, and intre- pidity, which have been in every age, more or less, the birth-right of Europeans. The trade of the Indians is chiefly confined to the more western ports of the Archipelago, and they are prevented from going to the eastern ports by the competition of the Chinese, and by the Eu- ropean monopoly of the spice trade, a trade which probably, in other circumstances of it, often se- duced them as far as the Moluccas. The commo- dities which they import are, besides, some of them such as are not required in the central and eastern islands. The import investments consist, besides minor articles, of salt, tobacco, blue cotton cloths, and cotton chintzes. The exports are some of the most distinguished products of the Archipelago, most of them, in all likelihood, the very same of