The Traveller, However, Soon
Acquires Different Ideas.
He sails for days or even weeks along
the shores of one of these great islands, often so great that its
inhabitants believe it to be a vast continent.
He finds that
voyages among these islands are commonly reckoned by weeks and
months, and that their several inhabitants are often as little
known to each other as are the native races of the northern to
those of the southern continent of America. He soon comes to look
upon this region as one apart from the rest of the world, with
its own races of men and its own aspects of nature; with its own
ideas, feelings, customs, and modes of speech, and with a
climate, vegetation, and animated life altogether peculiar to
itself.
From many points of view these islands form one compact
geographical whole, and as such they have always been treated by
travellers and men of science; but, a more careful and detailed
study of them under various aspects reveals the unexpected fact
that they are divisible into two portions nearly equal in extent
which differ widely in their natural products, and really form
two parts of the primary divisions of the earth. I have been able
to prove this in considerable detail by my observations on the
natural history of the various parts of the Archipelago; and, as
in the description of my travels and residence in the several
islands I shall have to refer continually to this view, and
adduce facts in support of it, I have thought it advisable to
commence with a general sketch of the main features of the
Malayan region as will render the facts hereafter brought forward
more interesting, and their bearing upon the general question
more easily understood.
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