Peter's in Rome, and its grandeur surpasses what has yet been attempted in any other part of India by Europeans. The statue of Vasco de Gama is placed over the palace gate of the city. There are in the Portuguese territories, which extend about forty miles in length and twenty in breadth along the coast, in the vicinity of Goa, 200 churches, and about 2000 priests, many of whom are exceedingly ignorant; and they have the old city nearly to themselves. The Inquisition is of course no more. It is the chapel of the palace, which is an accurate model of that paragon of architecture St. Peter's. The church of St. Dominic is beautified with paintings by Italian masters. In the Augustinian convent there is a very valuable library of theological works, mostly printed in the sixteenth century. The monument of St. Francis Xaverius is exquisite; and his coffin is enchased with silver and precious stones.

Although the Portuguese kept up a very con siderable force, their conquests never extended far from the sea coast. But from the Cape of Good Hope to China, there are numerous descendants of those settlers who colonised the different places along the shore. Many of them are now blacker than the neighbouring Hindoos; which is a curious cir cumstance, that shews how soon a new race of men may spring up by crossing the breed; for those to whom I allude, are all castices, that is the off spring of an European Portuguese father and a

native. Their language is a dialect composed of Portuguese, Hindostannee, and Malabar: and pronounced so in some places as to be nearly unintelligible to a native of Portugal. Even at Goa, the national language is now a corruption which, in time, will form another of those numerous dialects which are found in India. Such is the poverty of the inhabitants of this once famous city, that women descended from the best families, earn their subsistence by making lace or artificial flowers, and working muslin. Necessity obliges them now to be industrious, and the productions of their needle are sometimes very beautiful. Cochin lace is the most durable of any in India. The Portu guese have besides Goa, small establishments at Damaun, and on the islands of Timor and Macao, in China; but their trade is inconsiderable. In 1580, their power was at its summit, after which it came down by degrees, till almost totally destroyed by the Dutch.

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CHAPTER III.

ON THE EAST INDIA COMPANIES OF HOLLAND, FRANCE, DENMARK, OSTEND, SWEDEN, PRUSSIA,

THE Hollanders, like the other states of Europe, had received the fashionable productions of India through Portugal, till the conquest of that country by Philip of Spain, who prohibited his new subjects, in 1594, from corresponding with his enemies. But these brave republicans had now become soldiers and sailors, and they determined to seek at the fountain head, what monopoly refused to share down the stream. Cornelius Houtman was dispatched with four stout ships, by a society of merchants, called the Company of distant Countries, and succeeded in reconnoitring the coasts of India. He returned with a cargo of pepper and valuable spices; and reported that the Portuguese were every where hated.

A plan was immediately formed at Amsterdam, for establishing a settlement on the island of Java, and Van Nec, in 1598, arrived there with eight

ships. He was so fortunate in his negociations with the native princes, that he returned to Europe loaded with riches, and excited such emulation, as nearly ruined the first company; for different associations were formed, whose interests clashing with each other, threatened the destruction of the whole. At length, with the assistance of a wise government, these jarring elements were harmonised into a body of men styled, The East India Company, armed with absolute power to make peace or war in all parts beyond the Cape of Good Hope, to legislate for themselves, and to retain such territories as they might conquer.

This was quite an original idea. The Portuguese had traded to India for the purpose of enriching the king. Their viceroy had to act merely in agency for the government of his country, while in the case of Holland, one republic was formed within another, made mutually dependent by interest, yet both masters in their own concerns.

Success is the child of energy. Admiral Warwick, with a fleet of fourteen ships, soon laid the foundation of Batavia, formed a connection with Bengal, beat the Portuguese, and established at high character in the East for the courage of his country. In 1624, Fort Zealand was commenced on the western coast of Formosa, an island near China, which soon became the centre of trade with Java, Siam, the Philippine islands, Japan, and all the East. In 1621, the Portuguese were driven

from the Moluccas, and the trade in cloves and nutmegs fell into the hands of the Dutch. These valuable fruits grow on bushes resembling our birch and pear trees. Cloves preserved in sugar are eaten as a dessert to promote digestion; nutmeg is said to be a poison, if used immoderately, but, as a spice or medicine, it strengthens the stomach and bowels, expels wind, and is serviceable in dysentery.

The Dutch soon formed settlements also in the fine islands of Timor, Celebes, and Borneo ; the last of which is perhaps the largest in the world. It produces abundance of fine pepper, and some diamonds; but the inhabitants of all these are barbarous, treacherous, and cruel. Some of them are Christians; but in general they are converts to Arabian missionaries, whose tenets have only inflamed their natural ferocity.

In Sumatra, Banca, and Siam, the Hollanders also speedily formed settlements. From these rich and extraordinary regions they got tin, elephants' teeth, gum lac, sappan wood, gold, pepper, and camphor. The tree which produces the camphor, is one that grows as tall as our oak, with a leaf like the laurel, having numerous clusters of white flowers, which form into black berries as large as peas. Oil is procured by the application of fire from all parts of the tree, which is cut in pieces, soaked in water, and being heated, the camphor rises into an iron receiver. This is the case all over