called also Pulo Penang, and Betel-nut Island, is situated on the western coast of the Malay peninsula, from which it is separated by a narrow strait, not more than two miles in breadth. It forms an excellent harbour, which is capacious, and well defended from all winds, and it affords anchorage for the largest ships. The principal entrance is from the north-west; but there is also a fine channel to the southward. There is an inner harbour, in which ships may receive every kind of repair that can be performed without going into dock. The area of the island is estimated at 160 square miles. It is nearly five leagues in length and seven or eight miles in breadth. It is of an irregular four-sided figure, which is highest on the north side and shortest on the south; and is intersected by a range of lofty hills, which decrease in magnitude as they approach the south, and in which are the sources of numerous streams, that supply the island with abundance of water. These hills are of a moderate height. The highest, namely, the Flag-staff Hill, does not rise to more than 2500 feet above the level of the sea. Here the heat is comparatively moderate; the thermometer seldom rises above 74°, and often falls to 66° whilst in the plains it ranges from 76° to 90°. The climate is moist, and the rains are heavy. Except in the dry hot months of January and February, scarcely a day passes without rain, which is heaviest in November and December.
The island generally possesses a fertile soil, being for the most part a light black mould, mixed with gravel, clay, and in many parts sandy. It is chiefly formed from the decayed leaves of trees, from which originated a fine vegetable mould, the whole island having been for ages covered with immense forests. This has in some degree disappeared as the woods were cleared and the surface exposed to the weather; but the soil in the interior is still adapted for any sort of tropical produce. Cultivation is extended over the northern, and nearly the whole of the southern and eastern sides of the island. The principal productions are pepper, betel-nut, betel-leaf, cocoa-nuts, coffee, sugar, parsley, ginger, yams, sweet potatoes, and a great variety of vegetables. The island abounds in many species of fruits, such as the mango-tree, rambuteen, pine-apples, guavas, oranges, citrons, pomegranates, and others. The island also produces cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, pimento, kyapootee, cotatava, and numerous other plants from the Moluccas and Eastern Isles. Pepper is one of the chief articles of cultivation. This island also affords the elastic gum vine, or American caoutchouc. It grows to the thickness of an arm, creeping along the ground to the distance of two hundred paces, and then ascending amongst the branches of high trees. The forests which are found in this island abound in excellent timber for ship-building, and supply masts of any dimensions, lower masts of any size having been procured here for a seventy-four gun-ship.
This island was originally granted, in 1785, by the King Prince of Wales' Island.
Prince's Isle Principal.
PRINCE'S ISLE, situated off the north-westernmost extremity of the Island of Java. The land is generally low and woody, and the highest eminence on it is called the Pike. It contains a town called Samadang, divided into two parts by a river. Such ships as touch here may be supplied with fish, deer, plantains, pine-apples, rice of the mountain kind, yams, and other vegetables. Long. 105°12'. E. Lat. 6°30'. S.
PRINCE WILLIAM'S ISLANDS, a cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, discovered by Tasman in 1643. Long. 179° E. Lat. 17° 19'. S.