Able navigation was not confined to the waters of the Indian Ocean. We know how before the Christian era Hindu merchants and sailors traversed the Bay of Bengal, passed the Straits of Malacca and had flourishing settlements, temples and palaces in Bali and the great islands of the Java Sea. The Malay races in those islands had already proved themselves adventurous navigators. We do not know how early they left their mark on all the eastern kingdoms of the Bay of Bengal; on Ceylon, which was to them _Pulo Selán_ “the island of gems;” and at various points along the coasts of India, as far west as Gujerat. The Chinese too have not been behindhand with their well-built vessels and the compass which they first employed to direct them. Long, long were they at work, before they had formed and perfected the enormous junks which so delighted Marco Paolo, with their well-caulked seams, their fifteen watertight compartments, their fifty cabins, their three hundred sailors and numerous families of women and children: ready to undertake long coasting voyages, or even run up the Straits to Ceylon, or visit the three Ports of India which they loved, and from which they were driven only four hundred years ago. The very finest of these vessels belonged, not to the northern ports of China, but to the harbours of Siam. Among all the Hindu and Arab vessels I have seen at Zanzibar, Calcutta and Bombay, none equalled in size and strength of build the noble Siamese junks, which I once found at anchor, after their annual voyage northward, in the bends of the Peiho. It is when these pursuits are in full activity that ability in their management is developed in its highest forms. And what more natural than that among these Arab and Siamese and Malay navigators there should appear, from time to time, men of genius to shape out new enterprises: or that among their chiefs and people there should arise another Prince Henry or Queen Elizabeth or Ferdinand and Isabella, to foster and encourage them? Anyhow there the Malagasy are; a Malay people, following Malay customs, some of them possessing Malay eyes and hair and features; and all of them speaking a Malay tongue at the present hour. When they came, where they landed, what hindered their return, we know not. Was some large vessel caught in a furious cyclone and driven ashore? Were the first colonists few or many? Did they communicate with their friends and get others to join them? Were several settlements established at different points: was the colonisation continuous: if so, over how many years did it spread? Did Malay navigation extend to the east coast of Africa, and are Zambesi, Kilimány, Mombása, Kiloa, Masambika and other names there, of Malay origin, as Mr. Freeman suggested?