Were I to describe the different islands as I visited them, I should be betrayed into unnecessary length, as the islands so much resemble one another; I will, therefore, by way of shortening the narrative, enter at once into the description of the Arru Islands generally, omitting those particulars connected with channels, currents, &c. which would be of use only to the navigator. In the time of the old East India Company, the Arru Islands were garrisoned by a party of Dutch soldiers; and on Wokan there was then a fine fort. While Amboyna and Banda engrossed the entire trade of these islands, the inhabitants of the two settlements were in a state of great prosperity, but now the Arrus are visited yearly by about thirty paduakans of from fifty to one hundred and twenty tons burthen (twenty-five to sixty lasten), from Macassar, Boni, and other places, from whom the natives obtain goods by barter, and at so cheap a rate, that the traders of Amboyna and Banda are unable to compete with them. The Arru Islands, when viewed from a distance, appear low, but small green elevations occasionally show themselves among the limestone rocks. These islands, in all probability, owe their origin to a small archipelago of limestone rocks, between which the _polypes_, uninterrupted in their labour by heavy seas, have built up their coral branches to the surface of the water, during the prevalence of the westerly monsoon; and drying during other monsoons, owing to the tides being much lower, their habitations have formed a coral bank or reef. Some of the masses of plants, which are always floating about these seas, may have lodged on the reef and taken root, in which case the decayed vegetable matter, arising from their fallen leaves, together with sea-weed and other rubbish which may be washed upon them, would soon form a low morassy soil. The islands are separated from each other by channels of salt water. The centre of these is called _Sunghy_ Kobi-Wato, the northernmost Sunghy Maba-Wato, and the southernmost Sunghy Maykor-Wato. Little or no information can be gathered from the charts, concerning the position, the number or the names of the Arru Islands. Valentyn laid them down very incorrectly, and was uncertain how far they extended to the eastward.