are due to corresponding physical differences or similarities in the countries themselves-meet with so direct and palpable a contradiction. Borneo and New Guinea, as alike physically as two distinct countries can be, are zoologically as wide as the poles asunder; while Australia, with its dry winds, open plains, stony deserts, and temperate climate, yet produces birds and quadrupeds which are closely related to those inhabiting the hot, damp, luxuriant forests which everywhere clothe the mountains of New Guinea." A similar line separates the races of the archipelago into Malays and Papuans, who are radically different, physically, mentally, and morally; but this boundary lies somewhat east of the zoological frontier—a circumstance which, taking into consideration the power that man possesses of traversing the sea, appears very significant of the same causes having influenced the distribution of mankind that have determined the range of other animal forms. . . . It is certainly a wonderful and unexpected fact that an accurate knowledge of the distribution of birds and insects should enable us to map out lands and continents which disappeared beneath the ocean long before the earliest traditions of the human race. Wherever the geologist can explore the earth's surface, he can read much of its past history, and can determine approximately its latest movements above and below sea-level; but wherever oceans and seas now extend, he can do nothing but speculate on the very Here limited data afforded by the depths of the waters. the naturalist steps in, and enables him to fill up this great gap in the past history of the earth.” * December 10.-We reached Penang at daybreak, and, as the ship was notified to leave again at noon, hastened ashore after a hurried breakfast. Penang, or the “Areca Palm Island," is smaller than the Isle of Wight, and consists of a mass of granite, with peaks rising to elevations of three thousand feet, the whole bordered by an alluvial flat, only a few feet above sea-level, and covered for the most part with virgin forest. We took possession of it in 1786, the British Government of India having long desired a naval station on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal. It was then an uninhabited island, belonging to Queda, a tributary of Siam, and a romantic story says that Mr. Francis Light, who first brought the station to the notice of the East India Company, married the daughter of the King of Queda, and received with. her as a dowry the island of Penang, which he sold to the British. As matter of fact, however, the Rajah of Queda did not give his desert island to any one, but sold it to this country for a quit-rent of ten thousand Spanish dollars per annum, Francis Light being the agent in the transaction and the first governor of the settlement. A splendid crew of Tamils took us off the ship in a queer boat, having painted eyes at the bow and "The Malay Archipelago," by A. R. Wallace. * ending in two horn-like projections astern. The Tamils and the Chinese together appear to have crowded out the Malays, of whom one sees few in the town, though some of their boats lay around the steamer. Here we discharged a deck cargo of some sixty or seventy Chinese coolies on their way to the tobacco plantations of Sumatra. The "coolie traffic" is now at an end. When a planter wants men he contracts with a "coolie broker" in Hongkong or Macao, who gets the required number of labourers together, puts them on board a passenger steamer, and pays their fare to the Straits. Upon their arrival, the planter advances from thirty to forty dollars per man, which pays the passage money, broker's commission, and a small remittance to relatives in China, leaving about eight dollars in the coolie's hands. The latter signs an agreement to work for one year, advances in kind being made him, and a dwelling found. He clears land and plants tobacco, which the planter takes off his hands at a fixed price, and, at the end of the year, if the advances are not worked out, another contract is made, the man being free to go as soon as he is out of debt, or at the end of three years if still in debt. In the latter case he is of little value to his employer, but generally speaking Chinese coolies free themselves in the first year, after which industrious men can save a hundred dollars per annum. For the careful cultivation which tobacco requires, Chinamen are preferable to the Tamils, who grow coarser crops well, and are excellent managers of horses and bullocks, about which the yellow man knows but little. The planters are careful of the men's health, insisting on cleanliness and sanitation, notwithstanding which they lose a good many coolies, the sun and newly cleared jungle being the chief sources of mortality, though loose living carries off not a few. The vegetation of Penang is more strikingly tropical than that of Singapore. There are real "palm groves" here, and the drier atmosphere fosters plants which cannot stand the perpetual rains of the latter place. The harbour is full of shipping, all owned by the Chinese. Tin and pepper are the chief exports, but the trade of this port is on a much smaller scale than that of Singapore. We cannot help admiring as we proceed the conquests of British commerce, and the splendid spirit of our race, which is daunted neither by climate, distance, political and natural difficulties, nor absence from the things men prize the most. At all the important posts on the way to the far East stand these fragments of England; free ports, administered in the interests of free trade, and with great incidental advantage to native and immigrant races, who, while they prosper under our flag, are working, without knowing it, for the aggrandizement of Britain. CHAPTER XIII. CEYLON. December 11-24. December 11-13.-We have been on board the Teheran for nearly a fortnight, and although society in a Peninsular and Oriental ship, being more exclusively British, is always stiffer and less agreeable than that of a Messageries steamer, the days, as usual afloat, seem too short. There is a sweet tranquillity and ease about life on board ship in the absence of bad weather, which suit tropical heat and physical languor very well. Our cabin is a snug private room, where everything is always ready to hand. There is neither packing nor unpacking. Our little library is nicely arranged on an empty berth, and we can join the world, or retire to sleep, read, or write when we like. On deck are long chairs, whose arms support our languid legs; and if the society, being English, is very dignified and a little dull, we have been fortunate enough to find a few congenial spirits with whom to discuss questions of interest or talk nonsense at will. Of course it is hot, moist air at 80° in the tropics being more exhausting |