From a look at a globe or a map of the Eastern hemisphere, we
shall perceive between Asia and Australia a number of large and
small islands forming a connected group distinct from those great
masses of land, and having little connection with either of them.
Situated upon the Equator, and bathed by the tepid water of the
great tropical oceans, this region enjoys a climate more
uniformly hot and moist than almost any other part of the globe,
and teems with natural productions which are elsewhere unknown.
The richest of fruits and the most precious of spices are
Indigenous here. It produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia,
the great green-winged Ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly
tribes), the man-like Orangutan, and the gorgeous Birds of
Paradise. It is inhabited by a peculiar and interesting race of
mankind - the Malay, found nowhere beyond the limits of this
insular tract, which has hence been named the Malay Archipelago.
To the ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part
of the globe. Our possessions in it are few and scanty; scarcely
any of our travellers go to explore it; and in many collections
of maps it is almost ignored, being divided between Asia and the
Pacific Islands. It thus happens that few persons realize that,
as a whole, it is comparable with the primary divisions of the
globe, and that some of its separate islands are larger than
France or the Austrian Empire.
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