228 ANCIENT RELIGION OP THE gious persecution ; but the character of the Hin- dus, and the maritime unskilfuhiess incident to so barbarous and unimproved a state of society as theirs, must always have rendered them incom- petent to fit out a great maritime expedition, and accomplish a distant conquest. No evidence of such a conquest, accordin^^ly, exists, and no ex- ample of a considerable emigration, except that just now referred to. It is by no means, however, to be supposed, that the conversion of the Javan- ese to Hinduism commenced with this latter event. The extensive influence of the Sanskrit language upon the Javanese is itself a prominent fact, which implies, that the intercourse was of long continu- ance ; and, in fact, we may safely believe, that in almost all periods of the commercial intercourse with India, the beauty and fertility of the Indian islands, with the simplicity and credulity of their inhabitants, would have brought to their shore a suc- cession of adventurers and missionaries. The very same people, the Teiingas, continue to flock to them to this day, when there is far less encourage- ment, — when in the field of commerce they have formidable competitors in the Europeans, — and, in that of religion, in the Arabs. *
- It was commerce which always ushered in religion.
Where there was no room for commerce, there was no religi- ous innovation, as in the Nicobar and Andaman islands, and
