Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/437

OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 9Q^ •contrary, were found to have an industrious and com- mercial population, and abounded in highly prized commodities peculiar to themselves. The attainment of these commodities by violent means, and not the search for gold, became naturally the object of the European adventurers of all nations. The pro- secution of the same object has continued down to the latest period to actuate their policy ; a systematic injustice which has, in every period of the European connection, generated a train of evils and misfortunes to the native inhabitants, of which no other portion of mankind has been so long the victim. The rich commerce of the east was a kind of by- word in Europe. The Phenicians, the Egyptians, and the Venetians, owed, indeed, their prosperity to it, but their monopoly of it was alone a legitimate one, for it sprung from their superior wealth, skill, ingenuity, and geographical advantages, and violence had no share in it. The moment the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, the character of the commercial intercourse with India underwent a complete revolution. The spices, and other productions of Asia, had before reached Europe by a route difficult and circuitous from the ignorance of the times, and the barbarism of those who transported them, and of the nations through whose dominions the t^^ade had to pass ; but still the commerce wiis as free as the barbari-