The Daily Union

Correspondence of the N. Y. Sun.

THE SPICE ISLANDS OF INDIA AND AFRICA.

U. S. Ship Constitution,
Near Whampoa, June 19, 1845.

I last wrote you from Rio, from which place we sailed on the 5th of June, 1844. We did not touch at any place until we arrived at St. Augustine's bay, in the island of Madagascar, where we stopped for eight or ten days to water, &c. It will not take many words to describe the people residing on this part of one of the most fertile and pleasant islands in the world. They are jet black, and, with few exceptions, woolly-headed negroes, and the most inveterate beggars I have ever known. They are thieves, liars, rascals, robbers, cheats, pirates, beggars, and princes, in one conglomerate mass. They go nearly naked, with the exception of some little covering around the middle, the head, and live principally upon the spontaneous productions of the soil. They speak tolerably good English, even down to small children, which would seem to indicate a capacity for some improvement in civilization. If they have any religion, it is of the Mahometan kind; yet I saw no houses for worship or ministers of religion.

We also visited two other places in Madagascar—Bembatooka and Naseby, each of which places we spent a week. The people differed but little in character, except they appeared to be more mixed with the Asiatics than at St. Augustine's. We found abundance of fruits and necessaries for subsistence. The cattle are of a diminutive size, and have a large hump on the back between the shoulders. Their sheep are of the big-tailed breed, and well flavored. At Bembatooka they manufacture mats and a kind of coarse cloth from grass. On the coast of Africa we visited Mozambique, now almost a pile of Portuguese ruins, and Zanzibar, now the capital of the dominions of the Sultan of Muscat. Mozambique, perhaps, has now its hundreds where it formerly had its thousands and tens of thousands. It is now but the skeleton of the Portuguese former possessions on the coast of Africa. Zanzibar is in quite a flourishing condition, under the enterprising management of old Seid Seid Ben Sultan Ben Imaum. His clove and cocoanut plantations produce him annually a large amount. He has royal palaces, ships of war, merchant-ships, &c. &c.; besides, it is said he has seventy as pretty Georgian and Circassian girls or wives as ever peeped out

gray-headed, and over 60 years of age, with seventy young wives! What an amorous old fool!!

The old sultan treated us with very marked respect, inviting us to dine, &c., but did not introduce any of us to his young wives. Besides the Arabs, the principal inhabitants, there are many Hindoo and Parsee merchants at Zanzibar. The black slaves form a greater portion of the population. There are two American houses, and several English and French. From Zanzibar we proceeded across the Indian Ocean to Sumatra, arriving at Quallah Baitoo early in June. After staying some days on the coast, we proceeded round the north end of the island, down the straits of Malacca, to Singapore, stopping one day at the city of Malacca. At Singapore we staid five or six weeks, and then crossed over to Borneo, visiting the city of Borneo, Sambas, and other places.

Sumatra, Malacca, and Borneo are inhabited by a race of people originally of the same stock, viz: the Malays. They are the most cut-throat looking set I have ever seen—about as much civilized as the aborigines of our own country but not one-tenth part as honest. The productions of these countries will in time be of great importance—sugar, rice, spices of all kinds, including pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, &c. Most of the pepper trade of Sumatra is in the hands of Salem merchants, and I verily believe it is a fair tie as to rascality between the agents of these merchants and the natives. From Borneo, with great care to keep clear of rocks and shoals, we crossed over to Cochin China, and anchored about two weeks at Turon, or, as the natives call it, Han San. At this place there was some little display of American chivalry the particulars of which I have not time to state. From Turon we sailed for Macao, where we arrived about twelve days ago. I intend to go up to Canton in a few days. My health is good.

Yours, &c., E. E.