Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



169 



lines and cordage, and much stronger than any thing of the kind in Europe. These 

 leaves tliey likewise split into breadths, and tying the slips together, form their fishing- 

 nets. Their common apparel, by a simple process, is made from these leaves ; and their 

 liner, by another preparation, is made from the fibres. This plant is found both on high 

 and low ground, in dry mould and deep bogs ; but as it grows largest in the latter, that 

 seems to be its proper soil. It has lately been 

 planted, and found to prosper, in the south of 

 Ireland. 



1029. Van Diemans Land is without indi- 

 genous agriculture ; but its climate being similar 

 to that of England, its surface and soil favorable 

 for culture, and there being few natives, it is 

 rapidly colonizing with British farmers. As a 

 country to emigrate to, it appears the most desi- 

 rable in Australasia, and superior to any in Asia. 



1030. The Pellew Isles are covered with wood, 

 and encircled by a coral reef. None of these 

 islands have any sort of grain or quadruped ; 

 but they are rich in the most valuable fruit and 

 spice trees, including the cabbage-tree {^Areca 

 oleracea. Jig, 164.), cocoa, plantain, and orange; 

 and abound with wild cocks and hens, and many 

 other birds. The culture of the natives only 

 extends to yams and cocoa-nuts. 



1031. The Ladrones are a numerous col- 

 lection of rocky fragments, little adapted to 

 agriculture. The isles of Guam and Tinian 

 are exceptions. The latter abounds in cattle 

 and fruits, the bread-fruit, and orange ; but is 

 without agriculture. 



1 032. The Carolines are a large group, inha- 

 bited by savage , and without agriculture. 



1033. The Marquesas are in general rocky 

 and mountainous, and but very few spots are 

 fit for cultivation. The inhabitants are savages, 

 but cultivate rudely the yam in some places. 

 They have, however, the ava, or intoxicating 

 pepper (1021.); and procure also a strong 

 liquor from the root of ginger for the same 

 general purpose of accumulating enjoyment, for- 

 getting care, and sinking into profound sleep. 



1034. The Sandwich Isles resemble those of the West Indies in climate, and the rest 

 of the South Sea islands in vegetable productions. The bread-fruit tree attains great 

 perfection. Sugar-canes grow to an unusual size, one being brought to Captain Cook 

 eleven and a quarter inches in circumference, and having fourteen feet eatable. Dogs, 

 hogs, and rats, are the only native quadrupeds of these islands, in coinmon with all 

 otliers that have been discovered in the South Sea. The king is a civilized being, 

 and in the time of Geo. 11., and again in 1824, visited England. 



1035. The island of Otaheite is surrounded by a reef of coral rocks. The surface of 

 the country, except that part of it which borders upon the sea, is very uneven ; it rises 

 in ridges, that run up into the middle of the island, and there form mountains, which 

 may be seen at the distance of sixty miles : between the foot of tliese ridges and the sea 

 is a border of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places where 

 t he ridges rise directly from the sea : the border of low land is in different parts of 

 dillerent breadths, but no where more than a mile and a half. 



1036. The soil of Otaheite, except on the very tops of the ridges, is extremely rich and 

 fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of excellent water, and covered with fruit- 

 trees of various kinds. The low land that lies between tlie foot of the ridges and the sea, 

 and some of the valleys, are the only parts of the island that are inhabited, and here it is 

 populous : the houses do not form villages or towns, but are ranged along the wholie 

 border, at the distance of about fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of 

 plantams, the tree which furnishes them with cloth. 



1037. The produce of Otaheite is the bread-fruit, {Artocorpris integrifolia,Jig. 165.) cocoa- 

 nuts, bananas of thirteen sorts, plantains, a fruit not unlike an apple, which, when 

 ripe, is very pleasant; sweet potatoes, yams, cocoas {Arum colocassia, and Caladiu/n 

 esculenlum, both propagated by the leaves); a fruit known here by the name of jambu, 

 and reckoned most delicious ; sugar-cane, which the inhabitants tat raw ; a root of 



