Malayan nations, but I may refer to the undoubted facts that they
have been in a state of deterioration since we first became acquainted
with them; and the records of our early voyagers, together with the
remains of antiquity still visible in Java and Sumatra, prove that once
flourishing nations have now ceased to exist, and that countries once
teeming with human life are now tenantless and deserted. The causes
of such lamentable change need only be alluded to; but it is fit to
remark, that while the standard of education is unfurled, and dreams
are propagated of the progressive advancement of the human race, a
large part of the globe has been gradually relapsing and allowed to
relapse into barbarism. Whether the early decay of the Malay states,
and their consequent demoralization, arose from the introduction of
Mahommedism, or resulted from the intrigues of European ambition, it
were useless to discuss; but we are very certain that this "Eden of the
Eastern wave" has been reduced to a state of anarchy and confusion,
as repugnant to every dictate of humanity as it is to the prospect
of commercial advantage.

Borneo and Celebes, and indeed the greater portion of the islands
of the Malayan Archipelago, are still unknown, and the apathy of two
centuries still reigns supreme with the enlightened people of England;
while they willingly make the most expensive efforts favorable to
science, commerce, or Christianity in other quarters, the locality
which eminently combines these three objects is alone neglected
and alone uncared for. It has unfortunately been the fate of our
Indian possessions to have labored under the prejudice and contempt
of a large portion of the well-bred community. While the folly of
fashion requires an acquaintance with the deserts of Africa, and a
most ardent thirst for a knowledge of the usages of Timbuctoo, it at
the same time justifies the most profound ignorance of all matters
connected with the government and geography of our vast acquisitions
in Hindoostan. The Indian Archipelago has fully shared this neglect;
and even the tender philanthropy of the present day, which originates
such multifarious schemes for the amelioration of doubtful evils,
which shudders at the prolongation of apprenticeship for a single year
in the West, is blind to the existence of slavery in its worst and most
aggravated form in the East. Not a single prospectus is spread abroad;
not a single voice is upraised to relieve t