Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/529

 ARTICLES OF IMPORTATION. 513 Archipelago, higher than British sheet copper by 15 per cent., and higher by<t5 per cent, than Bri- tish slab copper, or that of Chili. Copper is used by the European part of the population chiefly in sheathing their shipping, and by the natives in the manufacture of gongs and other musical instru- ments of percussion, as well as in the fabrication of brass culinary vessels, which arc veiy universally used by them. Plated ware, in a variety of forms, begins to be in considerable demand. The principal articles are candlesticks and table-ware. Fire-arms and ammunition have always been in great request by the Indian islanders, whose ma- nufacture of both is extremely rude and imper- fect. It has been a principle with the European governments to inhibit the sale to the natives of all descriptions of warlike stores, a policy extremely questionable. The free sale of warlike stores to barbarians places them but the more at the mercy of the civilized people who furnish thenj with their supplies of these commodities. They are, in short, rendered much less formidable adversaries, when, by quitting their native modes of warfare, they at- tempt an unequal struggle with civilized man with his own weapons. We ought surely not to over- look also the effects which the possession of fire- arms produces in civilizing them. It is one of the most certain means of inducing them to fore- VOL. III. K k