September i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



191 



atioBS to dinner aud a bed for each of us, as he had 

 alwiiys been nocustonied to put up at the house of a 

 Ijlauting frieuil in Malacca, and depend' d on being able 

 to do the ssime this time; consequently, on arriving at 

 the entrance, we g"t our tiaps out and discharged the 

 cnrriage. Judj^e of our surprize when, after sitting 



down a little while, we were told that Mr. was 



away at the plantation. 



Cnlling a carringe, we started to find somewhere to 

 put up at, as Malacca possesses no boarding-house or 

 hotel, and, as there is nothing to do in Malacca after 

 6 p. m., residents n-tire early ; so ou driving to one 

 house after another we found them shut up for I he 

 night. Driving to the residoncea of some bachelor 

 friends we were informed by the servants that " niasttr 

 had gone for a wiilk, aud the time of liis return was 

 uncert'iiu." This caused us to look ratlier stujudly 

 at each other, aud, after a drive all round the town, 

 I proposed that we should put up in the carriage for 

 the night, my companion proposing that we sliould 

 go back and take possession of the houte of one of 

 our absent friends. This we acted on, nnd suc- 

 ceeded admirably, being warmly welcomed by our host 

 after the first s\irprize of finding "men in possession." 

 I have related this incident rather in detail as it will 

 help to give sonre idea of the state of civilizntion at 

 which Malacca bus arrived, and as a " word iu season " 

 to travellers who think of visiting Malacca to make 

 sure of a bed before arranging to stay ashore a 

 night there. 



Next morning at 6 o'clock we were en route to 

 another estate, belonging to Mr. Koh Hoon Boh, at 

 Matchap, about 18 mdes distant. The first ten miles 

 is along the public road, along some pans of which 

 in wet situations are large indigenous plantations of 

 the Glam (Melaleuca leucodendron), the bark of which 

 is used jby Malays for caulking their boats. In 

 all directions we saw the natives busy planting the 

 rice fields. 



On leaving the public road, bowever, our troubles 

 began ; to drive over the road we did the day before 

 was u delight compared with the one it no .i' fell to 

 our lot to drive over, aud it was with no little satsi- 

 faction that I gave up the reins at Matchap to the 

 syce, after his informing me when within 50 yards 

 of tlie house that I had 2 miles more to drive. Here 

 we found the primitive style at work. The roots are 

 first half-peeled with knives, in which operation a 

 large part of the root is cutoff, then thrown into a 

 tank of water when they are washed by the Chinese 

 treading on them ; thence they are lifted iu ba'kcts, 

 to the rasping machine, and worked by a traction 

 engine, built iu the brickwork, and regulated by 

 hand. The pulp falls from the rasper into baskets, 

 which are carried about 20 yurds, and the conteu;s 

 emptied on muslin covers of concave wickerwork bas- 

 kets, above which a wooden water guiter is placed, the 

 supply of water being regulated by plugs over the bas- 

 kets. Here the C'hinciinen separate the starch by 

 arranging a constant fall of water on the muslin, 

 and keeping the mass well stirred with their hands 

 until they think they have extracted all the 

 starch, when they throw the refuse pulp away, 

 and reC'-ive a fresh supply from the rasper, the 

 water with which they wash the pulp serving to 

 convey the starch to vats prepared for it. Of c mrse 

 the starch prepared iu tliis manner requires more 

 washing than thit prepared by the machinery I have 

 described, and I veniuie to think that couumeri in 

 England would prefer tapioca made by machinery, 

 when it need never be bandied, to that which is 

 carried about so much amongst decaying vegetable 

 mitter and mud, as that hand-prepared usually is 

 Here the stai'cb is backeil by fire p'lssing beneath a 

 tile covered Hue on which it is placed. Pearl tapioca 

 18 manufactured here as follows : — A cloth is attached 



like a hammock to the beams and kept open by ero 

 sticks. A man at each end alternately jerks the cloth 

 to aud fro, the slightly warmed starch under this treat- 

 ment soon forming small, completely spherical balls, 

 which are afterwards baked on a tile-covered Are. 



The number of coolies about here was Eurprizing, 

 aud it is hardly necessary to say that only about 

 30 piculs of tapioca are produced per diem ; in fact, 

 Mr. Koho Hoou Boh is so thoroughly convinced of 

 the Bupiririty of miinufadure combined with economy 

 of the preparation by machinery, after comparing 

 the cost at his estate, which we visiled the day 

 before, with the cost of hand preparation, as ut 

 Matchap, that he ordered a machine to be erected 

 at once. 



After tiffin we returned to Malacca, where we were 

 lodged and fed, in first-rate style, our host being 

 Mr. Chea Hoou Bong, whose name is. vfell known 

 throughout the Straits (and beyond) as one of the 

 most liberal-minded and hospitable Chinese gentleman 

 iu the colony. The next day we parted from our hos- 

 pitable friends of Singapore per steamer " Biliton," 

 :vn-iving ou Sunday morning loaded with presents of 

 fruit for ourselves and Singapore friend.s. Thus ended 

 what is probably the l.ast of my trips in the Mnlay 

 peninsula, and certainly, thanks to my companion 

 anrl our Chinese hosts, the most enjoyable one. 



Can yon or any of your readers give me any in- 

 formation as to the probable date of the introduction 

 ol' tapioca into the Straits, or by what nation it was 

 first brought to the East? I have not Crauford's De- 

 scriptim Dictionary of llie Indicm Islands to refer to 

 but so far as I recollect he does not mention Manihot 

 utilissima. Tkaveller. 



THE NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA. 



[S. A. -Register's S]^eciiil Reporter.] 



We were disappointed this morning. The latest 

 recollections of the most sleepless of the party 

 on Friday night were of rain pouring down as 

 rain pours only in the tropics, and the pro- 

 phecy was a flood today. But this morning wheu we 

 left the ramshackle public house at Rum Jungle the 

 sun was frowuing witheringly upon us as though he 

 intended to grill us offhand. The profuse junole 

 vegetation, rain-sprinkled, gbttered like diamond rests- 

 a select few of the comparative scarcity of biids— 

 the jungle pheasant, the pigeon, the bower bird, the 

 cockatoo, a sort of magpie, aud others — piped out 

 cheerily, those that could pipe ; aud gaudy butter- 

 flies — bright-yellow, aud mauve-and-black, and oue like 

 an animated pansy, and a good pansy at thar— flut- 

 tered gaily about atop the long intensely white seed- 

 ing grass. And nature-lovers in the party were moved 

 to music, and for once the prospect was that the trip 

 would be a pleasure excursion. 



Just b hmd the starting-point the telegraph poles, 

 begin to alternate —wood and iron — the intention beiuir 

 to make them all of metal eventu illy. They are burn't 

 down now very often in the dry season, wheu the 

 natives aud the teamst-rs periodically fire the grass 

 to secure a .'ucculent growt immediately after the 

 late rains. The soil for some distance beyond Kum 

 Jungle is a rich brown loam, sprinkled witli ironstone 

 gravel in places — soil similar to tiiat on McKinnou & 

 Foett's jilantation, three milci due West. Theeouutiv 

 is he.rutifully fertile and uiululating, a"d there ai4 

 some pretty peeps of scenery, the grass tall but le.-^s 

 rank and more succulent ; the trees stringybark 

 iroiibark, white gum, and other kinds of eucalypti' 

 as well as the screw palm, ail t.vincd round with 

 diir-reiit members of the convolvulus family. All the 

 way along the road— and also as far as I could cross 

 it while the other horses were perforce going along 

 at a walk— the country is of the sort which would 



