The Portuguese
Derived From Them Immense Quantities Of These Cowries, With Which They
Traded To Guinea, Congo, And Benin.
On their conquest, they obliged the
sovereigns of this island to pay them tribute in cinnamon, pearls, precious
stones, and elephants.
The discovery and conquest of the Malaccas has
already been noticed, and its importance in rendering them masters of the
trade of both parts of India, which had been previously carried on
principally by the merchants of Arabia, Persia from the West, and of China
from the East. In Siam, gum lac, porcelain, and aromatics enriched the
Portuguese, who were the first Europeans who arrived in this and the
adjacent parts of this peninsula.
In the year 1511 the Portuguese navigators began to explore the eastern
archipelago of India, and to make a more complete and accurate examination
of some islands, which they had previously barely discovered. Sumatra was
examined with great care, and from it they exported tin, pepper, sandal,
camphire, &c. In 1513, they arrived at Borneo: of it, however, they saw and
learned little, except that it also produced camphire. In the same year
they had made themselves well acquainted with Java: here they obtained
rice, pepper, and other valuable articles. It is worthy of remark, that
Barros, the Portuguese historian of their discoveries and conquests in the
East, who died towards the close of the sixteenth century, already foresaw
that the immense number of islands, some of them very large, which were
scattered in the south-east of Asia, would justly entitle this part, at
some future period, to the appellation of the fifth division of the world.
Couto, his continuator, comprehends all these islands under five different
groups.
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