CHAPTER II. COMMERCE WITH ASIATIC NATIONS. Intercourse ivith China Its history and early character. — Character qf foreign commerce ivith the Chinese, and regu- lations tinder which it is tolerated. — Navigation and skip- ping of the Chinese. — Nature of the import cargoes. — Amount of shipping employed. — Trade between the Indian islanders and the Hindu- Chinese nations. — Trade of the Archipelago tvith the country of the Hindus. — Probable history ofthefrst intercourse between them. — Present state of the trade. — hnporls andexpoi'ts — Trade between the In- dian islands and Arabia Its history and character — Ara- bian navigation. — Exports and imports. A COMMERCIAL iiitercourse has, from very remote times, subsisted between the Archipelagc and all the great maritime nations of Asia. I shall, in the present chapter, furnish a sketch of the histoiy and circumstances of this connection, beginning with that of the Chinese, and successively rendering an account of — that with the Hindu-Chinese nations, — the nations of Hindustan, — and the Arabs and Persian, — as, in other parts of the world, we find that it is the more opulent and civilized that have always visited the country of those that are less so.
