186 COMMERCE WITH make them welcome guests everywhere. This very naturally and very justly gives them an equit- able monopoly of the carrying trade, from which the ambition of Europeans, and the impolitic re- straints of their own commercial policy, have ex- cluded them. Of late years, the Ciiinese have brought the produce of Siam in considerable quan- tity into the different trading ports on the Straits of Malacca, from whence they have found their way to Europe. Many have even settled in the ter- ritory of Siam, where they manufacture sugar from the cane, which they bring to the above ports in large quantities, and at very moderate prices. In our times, the Chinese pointed out to the king of that country the benefits of extending an intercourse to Java ; and two small junks, of 120 tons each, have been, since 1815, sent to Batavia, navigated by Chinese, but with the capital of the king, and os- tensibly for his benefit. It was from the crew of one of these, among whom were two or three Sia- mese, that I obtained the information I have given in the preceding pages, respecting the commerce between Siam and China, as well as the principal part of what is now stated. The next department of the commerce of the Indian islands wdth Asiatic nations is that with the country of the Hijidus, In the account which I have rendered of the languages, religion, and an- cient history of the Indian islanders, I have endea- 1
