A lumpish mass, like Africa and Australia, the
ocean has nowhere pierced it with those deep bays and gulfs in which
commerce delights to find a shelter and a home. And though it has
navigable rivers, their course is through the almost impenetrable
verdure of the tropics, and they reach the sea amid unwholesome jungles.
The coast, moreover, is in most places marshy and unhealthy, for the
distance of twenty or thirty miles inland; while the interior is filled
with vast forests and great mountain ranges, almost trackless to any but
native feet. Besides, the absence of all just and stable government has
reduced society to a state of chaos. And to all this must be added
piracy, from time immemorial sweeping the sea and ravaging the land.
Under such circumstances, if there were little opportunity for commerce,
there was none for scientific investigations; and only by the
enterprises of commerce or the researches of science do we know of new
and distant countries.
Many races inhabit Borneo; but the Malays and Sea and Land Dyaks greatly
preponderate. The Malays, who came from continental Asia, are the
conquering and governing race. In their native condition they are
indolent, treacherous, and given to piracy. The very name Malay has come
to stand for cruelty and revenge.
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