they were themselves familiar. Magellan found arrack in abundant use among them, and Captain Beckman* was regaled with the beverages peculiar to other equinoctial regions. As Borneo furnishes most of the trees and fruits common to the East, hence the same description of liquors are prevalent-toddy and arrack from the palm ; sugar and rice; with cooling draughts from melons, oranges, citrons, bananas, pomegranates; a variety of other fruits and honey. Their Pagan practices have many offerings and ceremonies connected with the worship of their idols, which, with their feasts and superstitious observances, give occasion to the consumption of a vast quantity of their intoxicating beverages. Besides the native supply, a large proportion is imported from Java, for which gold and diamonds, so abundant in the island, are bartered. The ava, or intoxicating pepper plant (piper methysticum), is much cultivated by the Beajus, and affords them equal pleasure with the betel and areca, of which they chew immense quantities. The ava is a shrub with thick roots, forked branches, long leaves, and bearing a clump or spike of berries. The root being chewed, a little water or milk from the cocoa-nut is poured upon the masticated pulp, and from the fermentation which ensues, a strong inebriating drink is produced, in which the natives delight, and indulge often to excess. Their physicians, as among other rude nations, have recourse in the cure of diseases, to charms and necromancy; and most of their incantations and mummeries are the effects of intoxication. The piedro di porco, or pork stone, which is so highly esteemed among them, that it some times brings 300 crowns, is exhibited with the liquor in which it is steeped before the draught is administered, in order that the doctor may infallibly ascertain whether his patient is to live or die.

Throughout the whole of the Sunda islands, a vast number of the Chinese are scattered; and their affairs are managed for the most part agreeably to their own national observances. Those in the island of Timor have a code of laws by which they are governed; and amongst other regulations, they have secured to themselves an exclusive right to manufacture a spirituous liquor called anis, a description of arrack highly esteemed. The natives extract from the fan-palm, a beverage termed bacanassi; this is fermented in baskets made of the leaves of the pandanus, and suspended from the branches of the tree for a few days till it becomes fit for use.

In examining the group of islands classed under the name of Celebes, or Macassar, I find that naturalists are very little

Capt. Beckman's Voyage to Borneo, 1718, 8vo.

acquainted with the interior of any of them; they seem, however, to differ scarcely any thing in their productions from those already described. Most of the oriental grains and fruits abound, and rice is reared in such quantities, as even to afford much for exportation: cocoas, sugar, betel, areca, and different kinds of palms are plentiful. The plantain is of the very best description, and the natives in a great measure exist on the fruit and regale themselves with its inebriating juice. From the Sagwire, (Gomuti palm) a very strong species of wine is made, which, in Macassar, goes by the name of the tree from whence it is drawn. The religion in those islands, being chiefly Mahometan, has hitherto prevented the inhabitants from carrying on distillation to any extent, although they are supplied with every article necessary for the purpose. The arrack and foreign liquors consumed here are principally brought from Batavia; but, since many of the natives have become Christians, it is not likely that they will continue so scrupulous as the followers of the prophet. The introduction of the Mahometan faith is somewhat singular-one of their kings having heard of various modes of worship, particularly the Christian and Mahometan, became dissatisfied with his own religion. He convened a general assembly, and, ascending an eminence, with fervour addressed the deity, entreating him, as he had the winds and waves in his own hand, to send first to those islands those missionaries who taught the true religion, declaring, that he would reckon such an arrival a declaration of heaven in their favour; and disclaiming all blame, if he were thus misled. The Mahometans first arrived, and their religion was instantly embraced, as that for which heaven had openly declared.

The next islands that arrest attention are the Molucca or Spice islands, with which, although there is constant communication, our acquaintance is but slender. With their valuable products, which have added so much to the refinements of luxury, all are familiar; but the manners, habits, and domestic economy of the inhabitants, are yet but imperfectly known to us. Fruit is rather scarce, and grain is but partially cultivated, the whole attention of the people being directed to the rearing of spices. In Ternat, which is the largest of the groupe, a meal is extracted from the pith of a species of palm, thought to be a description of sago. From a luscious root of this name, which is sold in bunches, a kind of bread is made, held in high estimation. Canes, yielding a liquor between the joints, afford a cooling drink, while the defect of native beverages is supplied by foreign importations. In the Moluccas, some sugar-canes are grown, but they are of little importance; the bread-fruit abounds, and a kind of honey is

obtained from a fly (a species of bee), scarcely the size of an ant. The rapacity of the Dutch and their fear of invasion have induced them to discourage the cultivation of the various esculent commodities which the nature of the climate and the richness of the soil would warrant.

Amboyna is noted for an excellent description of Sagwire; the tree from which it is extracted, is of the same genus as the cocoa-nut, sago, siri, and date-tree; from sago and siri, it appears to derive its name, as if the liquor were indiscriminately made from each. To keep this beverage for any length of time, the roots of a tree called the Sasoot, or Oubat, are infused, which occasion fermentation, and the process is usually completed in eight hours. It is generally bottled for convenience and safety, and is considered wholesome, refreshing, and strongly inebriating. The juice or toddy is collected in the same manner as elsewhere described, and is here called tyffering,* From the Sagwire, an arrack is distilled, and sold so cheap as a farthing a glass. When Arago touched at the island of Rawack, one of the Moluccas, he observed, that both before and after a repast, a libation was made, in honour, as he supposed, of some deity-the milk of the cocoa-nut appeared to be the principal beverage.†

In the Manillas or Phillippine islands, the sugar-cane is successfully cultivated; the valleys are fertile in Sago and many kinds of fruits, and the bread-fruit has lately become an article of importance. The aborigines are called Negrellos, and, it may be presumed, they are much attached to inebriety, as they make drinking vessels of the skulls of such unfortunate Spaniards as fall into their hands, owing to the gross treatment they received from the first invaders.

At Manilla, the largest of these islands, palm trees grow in great perfection, and there is not less than forty species: such is the magnitude of some of them, that a Jesuit missionary having touched there, had, through the kindness of a friend, a place prepared for him so capacious, that under two leaves of one of those trees, he was enabled to say mass and to sleep securely from the most violent rain. The palm to which these leaves belong, is somewhat similar to the talipot of Ceylon (licuala spinosa)—the leaves lie in folds like a fan, and are so large, when expanded, that they measure five feet every way. Here they are used as umbrellas, and are sufficient to protect five or six persons from the heaviest rain. This tree rises to a great height, and never blossoms but once, and that is said to be in the year in

Stavorinus's Voyage to the East Indies, vol, ii. p. 349.

† Arago's Voyage, 4to. p. 234.

which it dies, when some beautiful yellow flowers appear at the top, ornamenting the wide-spreading branches, and these are surrounded by a fruit as large as a cherry, of which no use is made, except that of preserving it for seed. Thunberg, speaking of the talipot, says, that when the sheath, which envelopes the flower on its lofty summit, comes to maturity, it bursts with an explosion like the report of a cannon, and after that it shoots forth branches on every side to the surprising height of thirty or forty feet. When cut down for the sake of its seed, the pith, like the sago-tree, yields a sort of meal which is made into cakes, and tastes like fine bread, forming a good substitute for rice. Davy, in his account of Ceylon, questions the reality of what is related respecting the talipot, and says that a good deal of it is fabulous, but that the leaves are from twenty to thirty feet in circumference. Here, as well as in Mindora, another of these islands, a liquor called tuba is drawn from a palm much like the cocoa: large quantities of it are consumed in the country, and produce a considerable revenue. This beverage obtains the name of tuba, in consequence of the liquor being infused with calinga, the bark of a tree like cinnamon, which is put into it, in order to give it a colour and a more pungent taste. Large quantities of cocoa-nut wine are consumed in that country, producing a considerable revenue. The rich distil this juice either once or twice, as they wish it stronger or weaker; it is a clear spirit of an astringent quality.

The liquor called Chilang is a simple beverage, made by first boiling the juice of the sugar-cane, and then allowing it to ferment, after which it assumes the colour of wine. Another drink, termed Pangati, is made by first putting some herbs with leaven into a pot, then covering them with rice till the vessel is half full and afterwards pouring water on the entire mass. When fermentation has subsided, water is again added, and the liquor thus diluted is usually consumed by sucking it through a cane tube. A substance, not unlike marmalade, is made from toddy, enclosed in sections of the cocoa-nut shell, and exposed in that state in the public bazaars for sale. Sugar, however, is so abundant, that the manufacture of this article is rendered less necessary. Rice is reared with little labour, and even grows on the tops of the mountains without being watered; it affords the Chinese, who live on and frequent the islands, an opportunity for the exercise of their ingenuity in all the varieties of the brewing process. Abundant materials for the making of an excellent brandy are obtained from the cocoa, nipe, and cabenegro trees: the nipe or nipah is chiefly cultivated for its juice; it is a low description of palm, seldom exceeding the height of a man; the fruit affords an excellent

sweet-meat, and the leaves, called atap by the Malays, are employed in covering cottages and constructing mats.

As Manilla is the great mart and centre of all the Spanish traders in the East, and the several nations with whom they deal, much of the luxuries and comforts of other countries are brought thither. The viceroy lives in great splendour, and at his table, as well as at the tables of the higher order of merchants, may be found most of the wines, spirits, and liquors of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. The imports are chiefly brandy, gin, and wine: sugar is exported to the amount of 75,000 piculs annually, which, at 142lbs. the picul, is equal to 10,650,000lbs. The sugar is equally packed in earthen vessels, called pelons, three of which contain two piculs; the export duties are 12 cents. the picul. In 1817, the revenue on cocoa-nutwine, was 153,641 dollars, and on rum 483 dollars.

In Mindanao, another of the Phillippine islands, among the various fruits, plants, and grain which it produces, there is a tree, called libby' by the natives, yielding a kind of sago, and of which there are groves and plantations several miles in length. It resembles the cabbage-' tree, or rather the bread-palm of Malacca, having a strong bark and hard wood, the heart of which is full of a white pith like that of the elder. When the tree is cut down, the pith is extracted and beaten in a mortar until it becomes a complete pulp; in this state it is laid on a cloth, or sieve, water is poured on it and kept stirring until all the farinaceous, or mealy substance, is strained into a receiver. When settled, the water is drained off, and the residuum or sago baked into cakes and used as bread. Considerable quantities of this valuable article are exported to different parts of the East and eaten with milk of almonds, being deemed, from its astringent nature, an excellent remedy in diarrhoea.

The interior and mountainous parts of Mindanao produce honey in such abundance, that bees' wax is an article of export, and the inhabitants are not ignorant of the uses to which the honey may be converted in administering to the comforts of life. The Phillipine islands are also noted for a water drawn from a tree justly termed "the fountain tree," and for a kind of cane called by the Spaniards varuco, each joint of which yields sufficient for an ordinary draught; and it is singular that the vaxuco abounds in the mountainous and barren parts, where a cooling beverage is most required.

Leaving the extensive range of islands connected with the two great Indian Peninsulas, the first kingdom on the Asiatic continent that claims notice, is Cochin-China, in which the manufacture of rice-wine and distillation from that grain are carried on to great extent.

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