This will be readily conceived when it is considered that the mode of
barter is that which is most usual amongst the inhabitants, and that the
trader puts his own valuation upon the articles he exchanges with them.
One of the oldest and most respectable merchants at the Cape made a
voyage through these islands for the purpose of procuring gold dust, and
he detailed to me the mode in which he conducted the traffic. A Spanish
doubloon was placed in one of the scales, and gold dust in the other;
when the quantity of gold dust was equal in weight to the doubloon, he
gave a doubloon's worth of goods they required, at his own valuation; the
profit realized was large.

One great drawback to this commerce at present is the necessity of
coasting from place to place in order to obtain a full cargo. The same
inconvenience was felt along the coasts of Africa and Madagascar until
some enterprising London and Liverpool mercantile houses established the
system of receiving vessels, which remained stationary at one point
whilst smaller vessels collected cargoes for them. Now a colony in some
northern part of Australia would in the same manner totally obviate this
inconvenience by affording a place in which cargoes could be collected
from small vessels, and to which the British manufactures to be exchanged
could be brought. Kupang in Timor at the present moment is used for this
purpose by the Dutch.

DUTIES LEVIED AT THE ISLANDS.

With regard to the third point I find that at the native ports, in
general, no duty is required; but where there is a Rajah it is politic to
make him a present in goods. The duties levied by the Portuguese at Dili
in the month of June 1838 was 10 per cent. With regard to the duties
levied by the Dutch on British merchant vessels I know but little; but
the duty demanded at Kupang and Roti on each horse exported, or each
musket imported, was six rupees, being almost equal to their original
value. Arms or ammunition are no longer contraband either in the Dutch or
Portuguese possessions.

In considering the danger of loss or injury that may be incurred in the
transport of merchandise to these parts it is unnecessary to compute the
ordinary dangers to which the merchant is more or less liable in all
quarters of the world; but two distinct drawbacks to commercial
enterprise at present exist in these countries, which are peculiar to
them, these are the prevalence of piracy, and the constant occurrence of
politica