Introduction

The long and narrow peninsula of molica, extending southeastward from the territories of burma, forms the most southerly point of all asia. By the straits of sunda, chiefly vessels bound to china from the west, emerge into the china seas. And standing midway in that vast rampart of islands, buttressed by that bold green promontory known to seamen as java head, they, not a little correspond to the central gateway opening into some vast, walled empire.