These, with still heavier and more vexatious duties and exactions, were levied on trade in other districts of the island. Constant requisitions were made by the Dutch government for the services of native vessels, at rates far below a just compensation to the owner, and the native traders were forbidden to traffic in any of the articles of Dutch monopoly; considerations which incline us rather to express our surprize, that there should have been any native trade at all, than that there should be so little as now exists. The coasting trade is carried on in vessels belonging chiefly to Chinese, Arabs, and _Búgis_ (natives of Celebes), and in smaller Malayan _práhus_[59]. The enterprize of the Arabs, Chinese, and _Búgis_ is very conspicuous. They are in general fair traders; and Europeans acquainted with their several characters can rely on their engagements, and command their confidence. Many of them, particularly the _Búgis_, are possessed of very large capital. By means of the coasting trade, the produce of the maritime and inland districts is conveyed to _Batavia_, _Semárang_, and _Surabáya_, the principal ports of consumption and exportation; and in return those districts receive iron, steel, and other articles of foreign produce and manufacture from abroad. The western districts being but thinly inhabited, do not yield a sufficient supply for the consumption of Batavia; and on this account, as well as its being the principal mart of foreign commerce, the trade of the eastern districts is attracted to it, in a higher degree than to any of the other great towns in their own immediate neighbourhood: but owing to the unhealthiness of the climate, the loss occasioned by the paper money, which the native traders of other islands could never understand, and the various vexations and impositions to which they were subjected, these latter invariably prefer the more eastern ports of _Semárang_ and _Surabáya_, or rather _Grésik_, in the immediate vicinity of the latter, which has always been the principal establishment and residence of the Arabs. The _Búgis_ import into Java from the other islands, Malayan camphor, tortoise-shell, edible birds'-nests, bees'-wax, cloth called _sárongs_, of a very strong texture, their own manufacture, and gold dust, which they lay out in the purchase of opium, iron, steel, Europe chintzes and broad cloth, and Indian piece goods, besides tobacco, rice, salt, and other productions and manufactures of Java, with which they return eastward during the favourable monsoon.