JAVA. 49 



*' out of the earth, which deftroyed them all, and rendered the 

 " country for ever uninhabitahle. 



*' Such was the Malayan opinion. I fliall not attempt acom- 

 " ment ; but muft obferve that all the Malayans confidered this 

 *' tree as an holy inftrument of the great prophet to punifli the 

 ^' fins of mankind ; and therefore to die of the poifon of the Upas 

 " is generally confidered among them as an honorable death. 

 *' For that reafon I alfo obferved, that the delinquents who were 

 ** going to the tree, were generally dreifed in their beft ap- 

 <* pare], 



** This however is certain, though it may appear incredible, 

 *' that from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only 

 *' no human creature can exift, but that, in that fpace of ground, 

 *' no living animal of any kind has ever been difcovered. I 

 *' have alfo been affured by feveral perfons of veracity that there 

 " are no fifli in the waters, nor has any rat, moufe, or any other 

 *' vermin been feen there ; and when any birds fly fo near this 

 *' tree that the effluvia reaches them, they fall a facrifice to the 

 *' efFedts of the poifon. This circnmftance has been afcertained 

 *' by different delinquents, who, in their return, have feen the 

 ** birds drop down, and have picked them up dead, and brought 

 ** them to the old ecclefiaflic." 



Mr. Foerfcb gives us an account of, the fatal efFefls in the fol- 

 lowing melancholy narration. " In the year 1776, in the month 

 " of February f I was prefent at the execution of thirteen of the 

 ** emperors concubines, at Soura Cbarta^ who were convided of 

 " infidelity to the emperor's bed. It was in the forenoon, about 

 " eleven o'clock, when the fair criminals were led into an open 

 *' fpace within the w'alls of the emperor's palace. There the 

 Vol. IV. H *' judge 



