Note 42 — Chapter XVII

Note by the Translator.—Among the numerous benefits likely to be conferred on the natives of this part of the world, by the proposed occupation by the British of the north coast of Australia, will be that of an asylum being afforded to those who, by misfortunes or oppression, are forced to leave their native country. Singapore, at the opposite extreme of the Indian Archipelago, has already been very beneficial in this respect, and the fact of their subjects being able so readily to obtain the protection of the British, has forced the native chiefs to behave towards them with more consideration.