“ When these striking and important differences are taken into the account, we may be permitted to indulge more sanguine expectations of improvement among the tribes of the eastern isles. We may look forward to an early abolition of piracy and illicit traffic, when the seas shall be open to the free current of commerce. Restriction and oppression have too often converted their shores to scenes of rapine and violence; but an opposite policy and more enlightened principles may, ere long, subdue and remove the evil. ”

“ Among the Malay states, we shall find none of the obstacles which exist among the more civilized people of India, to the reception of new customs and ideas. Of the extensive and varied population inhabiting the Eastern Archipelago, and the continent adjacent, the gradations of civilization are wide, from the rude untutored Harafora, to the comparatively civilized Javan and Siamese; but the absence of inveterate prejudice, and a spirit of enterprise and freedom, distinguish the whole. In the interior of the larger islands, the population is almost exclusively devoted to agriculture ”

“ Had the commerce been properly conducted, the advantages must have been reciprocal; if it enriched the one party, it must have raised the other in the scale of civilization; by creating new wants, it must have opened new sources of enjoyment, encouraged industry and emulation.
The prejudice which has so long existed against the Malays, is fast subsiding. ”

“ In the spirit of personal independence which distinguishes these people, their high sense of honour, and the habits of reasoning and reflection to which they are accustomed from their infancy, are to be found the rudiments of improvement, and the basis on which a better order of society may be established. ”

“ Few people attend more to the courtesies of society. Among many of them, traces of a higher state of civilization are obvious, and where opportunity has been afforded, even in our own times, they have been found capable of receiving a high state of intellectual improvement. ”

“ Retaining much of that boldness which marks the Tartar stock, from whence they are supposed to have sprung, they have acquired a softness, not less remarkable in their manners, than in their language. ”

“ Establishments are formed on each of the principal rivers; and while the less civilized inhabitant of the country is engaged in collecting its valuable raw products, in traversing the woods, and sweeping the shores, these native merchants become the carriers to the more distant markets. ”

“ These people have not undergone the same artificial moulding; they are fresher from the hand of nature, and the absence of bigotry and inveterate prejudice leaves them much more open to receive new impressions, and adopt new examples. ”

“ Artificial impediments may, for a time, have checked these means; but in countries where, independently of the cultivation of the soil, the treasures of the mines seem inexhaustible, and the raw produce of its forests has in all ages been in equal demand ”

“ Had this object been combined with a liberal policy, and had the local circumstances of Batavia not obstructed it, the effect might have been different, and, instead of the ruin and desolation which ensued throughout a large portion of these islands, they might have advanced in civilization, while they contributed to raise the prosperity, and support the ascendancy of the Dutch metropolis. But when we advert to the greedy policy which swallowed up the resources of this extensive Archipelago in a narrow and rigid monopoly ”