Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/357

 INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. 341 portion of the tonnage of the galleon, which makes her return voyage nearly in ballast. When a free and busy intercourse is established between India and the west coast of America, the furs, the corn, and the timber, of the northern parts of the for- mer, will be exchanged for the sugar, tea, coffee, pepper, and other spices of the Indies, and the sil- ver and copper of Mexico, Peru, and Chili, for the same commodities. The trade of the Indian islands with the con- tinent of India remains to be treated of. The principal portion of it called the Eastern trade is conducted from Bengal. The Malay traders, as they are called, are generally vessels from two to three hundred tons burden. The principal ex- ports from Bengal consist of opium and cotton goods ; and the principal returns of gold, pepper, and tin. In consequence of the import of British cottons by our free traders, and of Turkey opium by them and by the Americans, this trade has greatly declined. Before the use of Turkey opi- um was introduced, the average exportations for the Indian islands used to amount to about nine hundred chests a-year, amounting to about 1000 cwt. of the drug. The average quantity of pepper imported into Bengal from the Indian islands annu- ally, on an average of eleven years, amounted to 25,428 cwt., and the average quantity of tin, du- ring the same time, to about tiOUO cwt. The total