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 political commotions in the native states. The establishment of a settlement on the north or north-west coast of New Holland would have however the effect of diminishing both these evils in so great a degree that a very few years would probably suffice for their complete annihilation. SUCCESS OF AMERICAN VESSELS. CAUSES OF IT. Notwithstanding the drawbacks occasioned to commercial enterprise by the circumstances above detailed, there at this moment exists a very considerable trade in the Indian Archipelago, which is, with the exception of the few vessels that sometimes bring ponies to the Isle of France and the British settlements, almost wholly in the hands of the Americans. Indeed no fact which I have met with has so much surprised me as the extraordinary diffusion of the American commerce, and the great spirit of enterprise exhibited by them. For in many places where the British merchants can find no commerce apparently worth their attention the Americans carry on a lucrative and prosperous trade, and in half-civilized countries, where the largest profits are always realized, the Americans are so eminently successful that the British merchant cannot attempt to compete with them.