Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



155 



as military roads, and " so far," Governor Raffles continues, " from contributing to the 

 assistance of the agriculture or trade of Java, their construction has, on the contrary, in 

 many instances been destructive to whole districts. The peasant who completed them by 

 liis own labor, or the sacrifice of the lives of his cattle, was debarred from their 

 use, and not permitted to drive his cattle along then), while he saw the advantages they 

 were capable of yielding reserved for his European masters, who thus became enabled 

 to hold a more secure possession of his country." {History of Java, ^c. i. 198.) 



938. Of the peninsula of Malacca very little is known. Agriculture is carried on in 

 the marginal districts of the country ; but the central parts are covered with unexplored 

 forests, which swarm with wild men and women, ,tgr^ 147 

 {Jig' 147.) monkies, tigers, wild boars, elephants, and 

 other animals. Tiie chief grain cultivated is rice; 

 and the chief exports are, pepper, ginger, gum, and 

 other spices, raisins, and woods. Game and fruits 

 abound. " The lands (Le Pouvre observe?;) are of a 

 superior quality ; and covered with odoriferous woods; 

 but the culture of the soil abandoned to slaves, is 

 fallen into conlemjjt- These wretched laborers, 

 dragged incessantly from their rustic employments by 

 their restless masters, who delight in war and mari- 

 time enterprises, have rarely time, and never resolu- , 

 tion, to give the necessary attention to the laboring 

 of their grounds." 



939. The kingdom of Siam may be described as a 

 wide vale between two high ridges of mountains;, 

 but compared with the Birman empire, the cultivated 

 land is not above half the extent either in breadth or length. 



940. I'/ie agriculture of the Siamese does not extend far from the banks of the river, or 

 its branches ; so that towards the mountains there are vast aboriginal forests filled with 

 wild animals, whence they obtain the skins which are exported. The rocky and varie- 

 gated shores of the noble gulf of Siam, and the size and inundations of the Meinam, 

 conspire with the rich and picturesque vegetation of the forests, illumined at night by 

 crowds of brilliant fire-flies, to impress strangers with admiration and delight. 



941. The soil towards the mountains is parched and infertile ; but on the shores of the 

 river consists, like that of Egypt, of a very rich and pure mould, in which a pebble can 

 scarcely be found; and the country would be a terrestrial paradise if its government were 

 not so despotic as to be justly reckoned far inferior to that of their neighbors the 

 Birmans. Rice of excellent quality is the chief product of their agriculture ; wheat is 

 not unknown ; pease and other vegetables abound ; and maize is confined to their gardens. 

 The fertility of Siam depends in a great degree, like that of Egypt or the Nile, on their 

 grand river Meinam and its contributary streams. 



94i^. The kingdom of Laos borders on China, and is surrounded by forests and deserts, 

 so as to be of difficult access to strangers. The climate is so temperate, and the air so 

 pure, that men are said to retain their health and vigor, in some instances, to the age of 

 one hundred years. The flat part of the country resembles Siam, {fg. 148.) The soil 



on the east bank vi' the river is moi-e fertile than that on the "wcbt. The rice h prcfened 



