Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 51).djvu/80

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Of the numerous groupes of islands which constitute the maritime division of Asia, the Phillippines, in situation, riches, fertility, and salubrity, are equal or superior to any. Nature has here revelled in all that poets or painters have thought or dreamt of the unbounded luxuriance of Asiatic scenery. The lofty chains of mountains – the rich and extensive slopes which form their bases – the ever-varying change of forest and savannah – of rivers and lakes – the yet blazing volcanoes in the midst of forests, coeval perhaps with their first eruption – all stamp her work with the mighty emblems of her creative and destroying powers. Java alone can compete with them in fertility; but in riches, extent, situation, and political importance, it is far inferior.

Their position, whether in a political or commercial point of view, is strikingly advantageous. With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility; the