342 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
The trepang is first thrown into a kettle filled with boiling sea- 
water. After a few minutes, it is taken out of its hot-bath and 
ripped open with a knife to cleanse it of its intestines. It is 
then thrown into a second kettle, where a small quantity of 
water and the torrefied rind of a mimosa produce dense vapours. 
This is done to smoke the trepang for better preservation. Finally, 
it is dried in the sun, or in case of bad weather under the above- 
mentioned shed. I tasted the trepang, and found it had some 
resemblance to lobster. In the China market the Malays 
sell it to the dealers for about fifteen rupees the picul of 125 
pounds. From the earliest times, the Malays have possessed 
the monopoly of this trade in those parts, and Europeans will 
never be able to deprive them of it, as the economy of their 
outfit and the extreme moderation of their wants forbid all 
competition. About four in the afternoon the Malays had 
terminated their work. In less than half an hour the kettles 
and utensils were brought on board, and before nightfall we saw 
the praos vanish from our sight.” 
The inhabitants of the island of Waigiou, to the north of New 
Guinea, prepare the trepang in the Malay manner, and barter it 
for cotton and woollen stuffs, which are brought to them by some 
Chinese junks. “In every hut,” says Lesson, “ we found great 
heaps of this dried leathery substance, which has no particular 
taste to recommend it, and is so highly esteemed by the Chinese 
for no other reason than because they ascribe to it,— as to some 
other gelatinous substances, as agar-agar, shark-fins, and edible 
bird’s nests, — peculiar invigorating properties, by neans of which 
their enervated bodies are rendered fit for new excesses.” 
The Feejee islanders have the reputation of being the greatest 
cannibals and the most perfidious savages of the whole Pacific, 
yet the trepang fishery attracts many American and European 
speculators to that dangerous archipelago. Captain Wilkes, of the 
United States Exploring Expedition, found there a countryman, 
Captain Eagleston, who had been successful in more than one of 
these expeditions, and obligingly communicated to him all the 
particulars of his adventurous trade. There are six valuable sorts 
of biche de mer, or trepang; the most esteemed is found on 
the reefs one or two fathoms deep, where it is caught by diving. 
The inferior sorts occur on reefs which are dry, or nearly so, at 
low water, where they are picked up by the natives, who also 
