England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland have possessions in the East. The former, always awake to her commercial interests, now has three prominent stations in the China Sea,--Singapore, Borneo, and Hongkong. But even these important points do not satisfy her, and she looks with a longing eye towards Chusan, a point of great importance, commanding the trade of the northern provinces of China, and contiguous to Corea and Japan. The "Friend of India," a leading paper, "is possessed with a most vehement desire," says the editor of the "China Mail," "that the British, without infringing their 'political morality,' could contrive some means of obtaining the cession of Chusan, which, in their hands, he believes, could be converted into a second Singapore, and become one of the largest mercantile marts of the East."[47] It is evident from what has been stated, and from the opinions expressed in foreign journals, that the attention of the civilized world has been suddenly attracted to the Eastern Archipelago, and it is only surprising, considering the knowledge possessed by the European nations, of the rich productions of these islands, and the miserable state in which a large portion of their inhabitants live, that efforts have not before been made to colonize them, and bring them under European rule. The Spaniards contented themselves with the Philippines, but the Dutch, more enterprising, as well as more ambitious, extended their conquests to Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas, and recently to Bali, Sumbawa, Timor and Celebes. But these are not all, for wherever our ships push their way through these innumerable islands, they find scattered, far and wide, their unobtrusive commercial stations, generally protected by a fort and a cruiser.