dreds may yet do so, if they have the same courage and
the same perseverance. Imagination whispers to ambition that there
are yet lands unknown which might be discovered. Tell me, would not
a man's life be well spent--tell me, would it not be well sacrificed,
in an endeavor to explore these regions? When I think on dangers and
death, I think of them only because they would remove me from such
a field for ambition, for energy, and for knowledge.

Borneo, Celebes, Sooloo, the Moluccas, and the islands of the Straits
of Sunda and Banka, compose what is called the Malayan group; and
the Malays located on the sea-shores of these and other islands may
with certainty be classed as belonging to one people. It is well
known, however, that the interior of these countries is inhabited
by various tribes, differing from the Malays and each other, and
presenting numerous gradations of early civilization: the Dyaks of
Borneo, the Papuans of New Guinea, and others, beside the black race
scattered over the islands. Objects of traffic here as elsewhere
present interesting subjects of inquiry; and while our acquaintance
with every other portion of the globe, from the passage of the Pole
to the navigation of the Euphrates, has greatly extended, it is matter
of surprise that we know scarcely anything of these people beyond the
bare fact of their existence, and remain altogether ignorant of the
geographical features of the countries they inhabit. Countries which
present an extended field for Christianity and commerce, which none
surpass in fertility, rich beyond the Americas in mineral productions,
and unrivaled in natural beauty, continue unexplored to the present
day; and, spite of the advantages which would probably result, have
failed to attract the attention they so well deserve. The difficulty
of the undertaking will scarcely account for its non-performance,
if we consider the voluntary sacrifices made on the shrine of African
research, or the energy displayed and the sufferings encountered by
the explorers of the Polar regions: yet the necessity of prosecuting
the voyage in an armed vessel, the wildness of the interior tribes,
the lawless ferocity of the Malays, and other dangers, would prevent
most individuals from fixing on this field for exertion, and points
it out as one which could best and most fully be accomplished by
Government or some influential body.

It is not my object to enter into any detail of the past history of
the