161 
Notes on Sumatra; Extract of a Letter from James MOTLEY, Esq., 
F.L.S., dated Sourabaya (Java), November 28, 1854. 
According to my promise, I sit down to write you some account of 
my trips to Sumatra at the beginning of this year, or at least to begin 
such an account, for when I shall be able to finish it I cannot yet tell. 
lam at present detained at this place by the vessel (by which I am on 
my way to Banjarmassing) stopping en route to take in some cargo; 
80 that after seeing what was to be seen, I have a day or two on my 
hands. 
My first attempt was an illustration of the proverb, “ more haste, 
less speed ;” for hoping the sooner to reach my destination, I selected 
far too small a boat, which proved unequal to the work. It was merely 
à common Singapore rowing sampan, with five men, and in this I 
started on the 16th of January at that pleasantest hour of the tropical 
day, when the light is just beginning to appear. After calling on board 
H.M. Surveying Sloop Royalist, homeward-bound after eleven years’ 
cruise, and bidding" good-bye to some of my oldest Indian friends there, 
I crossed the Straits of Singapore, passing close to the island of Blukang 
Mati, remarkable for the extreme virulence of the remittent fever which 
attacks all strangers sleeping there, as well as for its extensive culture 
of pine-apples. These are planted in rows all over the island up to 
the tops of the hills, some 200 feet high. They receive but little cul- 
tivation, this being apparently confined to destroying the taller weeds 
before the fruit ripens, and digging up the exhausted plantations to 
make room for new ones. The small suckers or buds surrounding the 
base of the fruit are preferred to the crowns or suckers of the root for 
planting. After the first fruit is cut, the stolons from the root are al- 
lowed also to fruit ; and after this second crop is gathered, the plantation 
usually becomes so fall of weeds that it is necessary to destroy it. The 
Varieties grown are two,—one dark-coloured, with the segments of the 
fruit large, the other golden yellow. The first is the largest, but except 
in very dry weather is watery and stringy; the second is far better, 
though small. In flavour it rivals our cultivated pines, but its comam 
is much more coarse and woody. The fruit from these islands is ex- 
ceedingly cheap ; the labour of cutting and carrying to the beach is the 
principal part of their cost; so much so, that but a few peccet 
* con 
person was allowed to take away a boat-load on co dition of cutting an 
Y 
VOL. VII. 
