Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/530

 514 DESCRIPTION OF go the rooted habits of savage Hfe, — of imitating ci- vilized men, — and of cstabhshing the authority of social order. Were the principle of supplying them without restriction acted upon, the Indian Islands would afford a great market for the warlike stores of the civilized and manufacturing nations of Europe. Small brass cannon, gunpowder, and muskets, are all in demand. The Arab and Chinese traders purchase cannon and blunderbusses for the protec- tion of their vessels from the attacks of pirates. Our common jwvvder in barrels is purchased with avi- dity, and an old musket will generally sell for from 10 to 12 Spanish dollars, or from 45s. to 54s. Among the colonists of Java there is a demand for neat fowling-pieces, such as are manufactured at BiiTningham, and the taste for them is extending to the native chiefs, who have also a taste, like the Turks and Persians, for handsome pistols. There is no article of our manufactures con- sumed in the Indian Islands upon which the fall of prices has produced so remarkable an effect in extending consumption as glass-ware. A few years ago, a trifling quantity was consumed by the European colonists, and even those living among the natives could hardly have suspected that they would have become already considerable consumers of this description of manufacture. The Chinese of Java, the Javanese, and even many of the inha- bitants of the more distant islands to the eastward.