IN the mid-18th century, an explorer in this archipelago, seeing the brown-skinned inhabitants who resembled Polynesians, wondered: What are these people called? What is the name of these islands of theirs?

George Samuel Windsor Earl, this English explorer, decided: “Indunesia”. But then he changed his mind, “Malayanusia” would be better, he said. But this name did not last long. His colleague, James Logan, chose the name “Indonesia”