The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-10-27

Any one who will take up map of the Pacific
Ocean, will perceive, lying contiguous to the Con-
tinent of ASIA and covering some forty degrees
of latitude on each side of the equatorial line,
what seem to be scattered and irregular nebu-
lous masses, nterspersed with clusters of dots and
sharp angular fragments, some large and some
small. These nebulous masscs-for so they ap-
pear to be upon the map-consist, in point
of fact, of n multitude of islands, lying TO the
SOUTHEAST of the Asiatic Continent, and to
the North and West of New Holland and New
Guinea, all of which were formerly included
by geographers within the limits of Asia
under the name Of the Indian, Asatc Archi-
pelago. Recent systematic writers have, how
ever, attached them to Oceania, under the name
of Malaysia or Northwestern Oceana; but to
American readers, they are more familiarly
known by their original designation Of the Indian
Archipelago. There is a special interest attach
ing, at present, TO these groups of islands, not
only from the fact that they are in the direct
pathway of commerce with Eastern and Southern
Asia. but from the public attention which has
been drawn towards them by the revival of claims
on the part OF the government of the Netherlands
10 an exclusive trade with, and to a right of
jurisdiction over all that Island region. Those
claims promptly repudiated by England, so
far back as 1916, when the Dutch Minister, NJ. Be
DEL ventured to demonstrate with Lord ABERDEEN
upon the appointment Of Sir JAMES BROOKE,
the recognized Raiah of Sarawak, as the
agent of the British Government in Borneo
''Tbe official appointment of Sir JAMES BROOKE"
wrote NJ. BEDEL, Combined with his long expe-
ttria Mir 4 of4l ,o
''of Borneo, renders him very inconvenent and
"harrassing parsonage for the Netheranders ard
''ther government" He further argued that
by the treaty of 1924 which ceded to Holland the
factory of Fort Marlborough and all the British
possessions on the island of Sumatra, and which
also provided that no British establishment should
'sbe made the Carimon isles or on the Islands
'fBantam Bintang Lingin, or any of the other
sIsands South of the Straits Of Singapore Great
Britain was precluded from occupying any portion
whatever of the Indian Archipelago, and intimated
wish that ''the inconvenient and harrassing ner-
t'sonage," Sir JAMES BROOKE, should be regarded
as a nuisance, and abated accordingly. Lord
Aberdeen however, in reply, stated that Her
Majesty's government had decided that ''there was
"nothng in the treaty of 1924 to prevent the
formation OF British settlements in the dis
"tricts of the Indian Archipelago, from which
"Great Britain was not in terms excluded by the
'treaty," and in answer to the apprehension
expressed by NJ. BEDEL, that Complications
would take place, he quietly remarked that 'Her
oMaiestys government could not allow any appre-
shension of the possible occurrence of such comp-
scatons to interfere with their paramount duty of
nprotectng the just rights and legitimate interests
ssof Her Majesty's subjects" This correspondence
took place in 1916. The obnoxious Rajab, of
Sarawal, maintained undsputed possession of his
provnce; opened lucrative commercial inter-
intercourse between Sarawak and Singapore; sup
messed inland piracy, drove the piratical Malay
nrabus from the neIghboring seas made laws;
administered justice, and encouraged trade and
manufactures. But if the government OF the