336 EUBIACE^. 



though they chew its leaves Instead of Pinang, it must not be supposed 

 that it is this plant from which the lozenges Gatta are compounded, for 

 that indeed is quite different. 



Thus, if we may credit Eumphius, it would seem that the important 

 manufacture of gambler had no existence at the commencement of the 

 last century. As to " Gatta Gamhir" his statements are scarcely in 

 accord with those of more recent writers. We may however remark 

 that that name is very like the Tamil Katta Kdmbu, signifying Catechu, 

 which drug is sometimes made into little round cakes, and was certainly 



a large export from India to Malacca and China as early as the IGth 

 century (p. 241). 



That gambler was unknown to Europeans long after the time of 

 Eumphius, is evident from other facts. Stevens, a merchant of Bomhay, 

 in his Gompleai Guide to the East India Trade, published in 1766, 

 quotes the prices of goods at Malacca, but makes no allusion to gambler, 

 Nor is there any reference to it in Savary's Dictioimaire de Commerce 

 (ed. of 1750), in which Malacca is mentioned as the great entrepot of 

 the trade of India with that of China and Japan. 



The first account of gambler known to us, was communicated to the 

 Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in 1780, by a Dutch trader named 

 Couperus. This person narrates' how the plant was introduced into 

 Malacca from Pontjan in 1758, and how gambler is made from its 

 leaves; and names several sorts of the drug and their prices. 



^° /S07, a description of "the drug called Gutta Gamheer," and 

 ot the tree from which it is made, was presented to the Linnean Society 

 ot London.2 The writer, William Hunter, well known for scientific 

 observations in connection with India, states that the substance is 

 made chiefly at Malacca, Siak and Ehio, that it is in the form of small 

 squares, or little round cakes almost perfectly white, and that the finer 

 sorts are used for chewing with betel leaf in the same manner as 

 catechu, while the coarser are shipped to Batavia and China for use in 

 tanning and dyeing. 



Manufacture-The gambler plant is cultivated in plantations, 

 inese were commenced in 1819 in Singapore, where there were at one 

 time SOO plantations ; but owing to scarcity of fuel, without an abun- 

 dant supply of which the manufacture is impossible, and dearness o 

 labour gambier-planting was in 1866 fast disappearing from the island. 

 Ihe officia Blue Book, printed at Singapore in 1872, reports it as " 



aboiif 1 Tk7 "\ f ^^^ang, the most nort. 



about l,2o0 ganibier-plantations in 1854. 



ihJr fT^^^T^ are oflen formed in clearings of the jungle, where 



^olr^ f-^r a fe^ y,^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ abandoned,^ owing to the iw- 



povenshment of the soil and the irrepressible growth of the la^ 



than ivl?'''"^'' ^'^'^'9'' ^' ^^ B.), which is more difficult to eradicai 

 tnan even pnmseval jungle. It has been found profitable to combine 



^'•-. Tr.... ... ^^^g^^ ^'ISLse of land has been repressed 



in Singapore. 



