SOOLOO ISLANDS.--Mr. Itier, attaché to the French mission in China, has recently visited a cluster of islands lying to the northeast of Borneo, between that island and Mindanao.[51] His researches on the natural history and geology of these islands, are of much interest. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and the climate more healthy than is usual in intertropical climates. The sugar cane, cocoa, rice, cotton, the bread fruit, indigo, and spices of all kinds, are among their products. Fruits and vegetables of a great variety, are abundant, and of a superior quality. Nine-tenths of the soil is still covered with the primitive forest, of which teak-wood, so valuable in shipbuilding, forms a part. A considerable commerce with China and Manilla is carried on, and from ten to twelve thousand Chinese annually visit the island of Basilan, the most northerly of the group, to cultivate its soil, and take away its products. The peculiar situation of these islands, and their contiguity to the Philippines, to Celebes, Borneo, Manilla, China, and Singapore, make them well adapted for a European colony. In fact, there do not appear to be any islands of the East Indies of equal importance, and there can be no doubt that with the present desire manifested by European nations for colonizing, this desirable spot will ere long be secured by one of them. The Sooloo group embraces sixty inhabited islands, governed by a Sultan, residing at Soung. One of these would be an advantageous point for an American colony or station. The same gentleman has presented to the Geographical Society of Paris, the journal of a voyage and visit to the Philippine islands, from which it appears that that large and important croup is not inferior in interest to the Sooloo islands. The natural history and geology, the soil and its products, the manners and customs of the people, their commerce and political history, are described in detail.[52] The group embraces about twelve hundred islands, with a population of 4,000,000, of whom about 8,000 are Chinese, 4,000 Spaniards, 120,000 of a mixed race, and the remainder natives. THE NICOBAR ISLANDS, a group nineteen in number, in the Bay of Bengal, have again attracted the attention of the Danish government, by which an expedition has been sent with a view to colonize them anew. The Danes planted a colony there in 1756, but were compelled to abandon it in consequence of the insalubrity of the climate. Subsequently the French made an attempt with no better success. Recent publications on the Eastern Archipelago and Polynesia. Ethnology and Philology. By Horatio Hale, Philologist of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, imp. 4to. Philadelphia, 1846. Reise nach Java, und Ausflüge nach den Inseln Mudura und S. Helena; von Dr. Edward Selberg, 8vo. Oldenburg, 1845.