790 



SAGO. 



advocate, and, undismayed by the general oppo- 

 sition it provoked, brought the cause of those 

 who had " none to plead for them" again and again 

 before the British public. During the last session 

 be sat in parliament, Mr Sadler was almost wholly 

 occupied in prosecuting a bill he bad brought be- 

 fore the legislature for the protection of children 

 employed in manufactories the ten-hour bill, as 

 it is familiarly called. This measure was referred 

 to a select committee, of which Mr Sadler was 

 chosen chairman, and the toil and responsibility 

 thus imposed upon him of collecting the vast mass 

 of evidence contained in their report, probably laid 

 the foundation of his long and fatal illness. 

 Neither did he, after all, succeed in passing this 

 measure of mercy, although the voice of public 

 opinion compelled his reluctant opponents, in a 

 subsequent session, to bring one forward profess- 

 edly similar. 



Mr Sadler was the author of several highly 

 esteemed works, the most important of which are, 

 " Ireland, its Evils and their Remedies," and an 

 elaborate essay on " The Law of Population," in 

 two vols. 8vo., written principally with a view to 

 controvert the opinions of Malthus. A third vol- 

 ume, completing this scientific and admirable work, 

 was unfortunately never finished. His death took 

 place, at New Lodge, near Belfast, on the 29th of 

 July, 1835. At the time of bis death, he was 

 leading partner of the firm of Sadler, Fenton, and 

 Co. of Belfast. In private life he was affectionate, 

 generous, affable, and accessible to all. His ap- 

 pearance was remarkably that of a man of genius ; 

 and there was an enthusiasm and energy in his 

 manner strikingly characteristic of an elevated and 

 powerful mind. His social qualities were of the 

 highest order, and his conversation was eminently 

 brilliant and instructive. It was said by lord 

 Bacon, at the close of life, " the poor have been 

 ever precious in mine eyes;" and no man could 

 more fully adopt this Christian sentiment than Mr 

 Sadler. As a statesman, his parliamentary career 

 was invariably characterised by integrity, honour, 

 benevolence, sound judgment, and genuine inde- 

 pendence of mind. In depth of reasoning, in per- 

 spicuity of argument, in extensive information, in 

 aptitude of reply, in commanding eloquence, he had 

 scarcely a competitor in the British House of 

 Commons. 



SAGO, (a.) The sago of commerce is the pro- 

 duct of a species of palm which grows naturally 

 in various parts of India and Africa. It is one of 

 the most common, and at the same time one of the 

 most useful of the vegetable productions of the 

 countries in which it is found. The central vein 

 or rib of its ample leaves is used by the natives of 

 Africa for various useful purposes ; they form it 

 into weapons of offence, and they employ it for 

 the purpose of capturing fish : for this purpose a 

 species of fish-hook, resembling the barb of a har- 

 poon, is fixed to one end, to the other a line is 

 fastened, which is afterwards passed round the body 

 of the sportsman. Thus armed, he wanders along 

 the sea-shore, and on the banks of the river, and 

 whenever he perceives a fish, throws his dart, and 

 generally with success. His prey is allowed to re- 

 main for some time, without an attempt on his 

 part to draw it out of the water, until it is suffi- 

 ciently exhausted by its efforts and by loss of 

 blood. 



Of the perfect leaves the Indians form fences to 

 their fields, coverings to their houses, and when 



properly fastened together by means of branches 

 of trees, the dwellings themselves ; these habita- 

 tions are much more durable than could be expect- 

 ed, on account of the great strength and thickness 

 of these bundles of leaves. 



The natives of Africa obtain a liquor from this 

 tree, which much resembles palm wine, but is 

 stronger and of a deeper colour. They have two 

 methods of extracting this liquor ; the first con- 

 sists in collecting the sap in calabashes, from incisions 

 made in the fleshy substance of the summit of the 

 tree from which the new leaves proceed. The second 

 plan is to collect a quantity of the fruit, to strip it 

 of its rind, and steeping the kernels in the sap 

 already noticed, diluted with water, to allow the 

 whole to ferment. This second kind of wine is still 

 higher coloured, and more intoxicating ; it sparkles 

 like champagne, and can be kept a considerable 

 time. 



The production for which this tree is best known 

 in Europe is sago, although other trees of the 

 palm tribe also yield it in greater or lesser quan- 

 tities. The sago is principally extracted from the 

 pith which fills the trunk of the palm, and is of a 

 more delicate colour and nature in the young than 

 in the old trees. 



The trunk of the tree being split in the direc- 

 tion of its length, the operator removes the pith 

 which he breaks in pieces, and throws into a ves- 

 sel made from the bark of a tree, and placed over 

 a horse-hair sieve ; he then pours water over the 

 mass and the finer parts of the pith pass through 

 the sieve, and are received in pots which are pro- 

 vided for the purpose ; the fibrous portions of the 

 pith are retained by the sieve. 



The liquid thus obtained is, in the first instance, 

 turbid, from the quantity of matter it holds in 

 solution ; this, by degrees, settles to the bottom of 

 the vessel, and the clear liquor is drawn off. The 

 mass that remains is then passed repeatedly 

 through shallow dishes of metal perforated with 

 numerous small holes; this is continued until it is 

 sufficiently dry to prevent the grains into which it 

 is formed by the process, from again becoming 

 united. The reddish tinge which is observed in 

 the sago of commerce, arises from the effect of 

 the heat to which it is submitted to render it per- 

 fectly dry. 



In the Moluccas and the Philippine islands, the 

 soft paste of the sago, before it is dried, is formed 

 into cakes about six inches square and of the thick- 

 ness of the finger. These are strung together in 

 bunches of ten and twenty and exposed for sale ; 

 it is also employed in the making of puddings, 

 gruel, and for the same culinary purposes to which 

 wheaten flour is applied in this country. 



The sago palm is a tree of moderate height, 

 seldom attaining to twenty feet. The fruit, which 

 is a dry oval cone covered with small scales, grows 

 in clusters, forming a large oval tuft or bunch. 



There is a palm-tree closely allied to the sago 

 palm, which grows in great abundance in South 

 America, in the neighbourhood of the Oronoko ; 

 to this tree a native tribe, the Guarinis, are in- 

 debted for nearly the whole of their subsistence : 

 and thus, says Humboldt, " we find in the lowest 

 stage of human civilization, the existence of a 

 people depending entirely on a single species of 

 tree, in the same manner as some insects are con- 

 fined to certain parts of a flower." The Guarinis 

 also form their habitations, if they deserve that 

 name, from the leaves of this tree, they make mats 



