The numerous islands lying between the Moluccas and the northern coasts of Australia, have hitherto been very little known to the world; indeed, we cannot discover that any account of them has yet been made public, with the exception of some observations in Valentyn's "Oude en Nieuw Oost Indien," a work published in Holland more than a century ago:--we are, therefore, induced to offer a few particulars concerning their early history, as an introduction to M. Kolff's narrative. We cannot discover that these islands were ever visited by Europeans previous to 1636, in which year Pieter Pieterson, a Dutch navigator, touched at the Arru Islands during his voyage to examine the northern coasts of Australia, which had been discovered thirty years previously by a small Dutch vessel, called the _Duyfken_. Six years subsequently the Arru group was again visited by F. Corsten, when several of the native chiefs were induced to acknowledge the supremacy of the Dutch East India Company, binding themselves to trade with no other Europeans, and investing them with the monopoly of the pearl banks, the produce of which the Dutch conveyed to Japan, and there found a ready market and a lucrative return. Transactions, with similar views, subsequently took place at the adjacent islands, on which small bodies of troops were placed, to whose control the simple natives willingly submitted, and viewed with indifference the destruction of the spice trees, which were vigorously sought for and up-rooted by the new comers.