Malay Archipelago minimises the risk of catastrophe by
numerous safety valves for the imprisoned forces of Earth's fiery
abyss. In isolated Krakatau only one outlet existed for the vast
accumulations of destructive agencies, gathering irresistible impetus
through the protracted period of condensation and suppression which
heated this mighty furnace of Nature's subterranean laboratory with
sevenfold power. A generation has grown up since the hell of devouring
fire swept across land and sea from this solitary mountain peak;
villages have been rebuilt on their ancient sites, and the activities
of life go on from year to year undisturbed. The story of Krakatau,
told under the drooping boughs of dusky waringen-trees in the evening
hour of leisure, seems veiled in the mists of legendary lore to youth
and maiden, listening to the oft-told tale. Poverty clings to familiar
soil, and in the deep groove of a narrow existence the popular mind
takes little thought for the future. The realities of life are bounded
by the daily needs, and the shadow of Krakatau fails to destroy the
present peace of the simple folk, who, like children gathering flowers
on the edge of a precipice, heed none of the grim possibilities of a
perilous environment.

PENANG.

Poelo-Penang, _The Isle of the areca-nut_, separated by a narrow strait
from the Malay Peninsula, was ceded to England in 1785 by the Rajah of
Kedah, from whom the present Sultan of Johore is lineally descended.
The little territory, chiefly consisting of a mountain covered with
palm-forests, was then almost uninhabited, but the strategetic
importance of the position resulted in the establishment of an English
Presidency, until the phenomenal growth of Singapore made it the
eventual centre of local authority. "Sinhapura," "the City of Lions"
(or, more accurately, of tigers), founded by the Hinduized Malays, and
developed by Sir Stamford Raffles into the principal trading port of
the Eastern seas, of necessity drew off from Penang a large contingent
of the polyglot races which flocked thither from all parts, when the
British flag first waved above the newly-built fort, but at least
100,000 inhabitants still occupy the verdant island, where the graceful
areca palm attains unexampled perfection. Penang was merely regarded
as an unimportant appendage of ancient Malacca, captured in 1311 by
Albuquerque, and though the territory of the principal Sultan underwent
innumerable vicissitu