314 
General d'Entrecasteaux, observed and as- 
certained the tree which affords the Upas 
Antiar at Java, and has given some in- 
formation in the first volume of Travels 
respecting it, which is correct, so far as it 
goes, but is deficient in details. M. Des- 
champs states, with truth, that the Java- 
nese make a secret of its preparation, and 
confesses that he has been unable to find 
it out. For some time after I arrived in 
Java, my enquiries were equally unsuc- 
cessful; at Batavia and Samarang, I learn- 
ed absolutely nothing respecting it, for 
I only heard some ridiculous stories, which 
I abstain from repeating. At Soura-carta, 
the residence of the Emperor of Java, I 
was told that the Upas grew in the pro- 
vince of Bagnia-Vangni, a place which I 
visited in the close of July, 1805. A Ja- 
vanese, whom I took into my service, and 
who killed birds for me with the arrows 
steeped in Upas Antiar, pointed out to 
me the tree which afforded this poison, 
and taught me the mode of its preparation 
by doing it in my sight. 
“The Upas Antiar is prepared with the 
gum-resin which flows from a very large 
tree, from incisions made in its trunk. The 
preparation of this poison is done cold, in 
an earthen jar; to the gum-resin are added 
the seeds of Capsicum fruticosum, Pepper, 
Garlic, the roots of Kempferia Galangas, 
and those of Costus Arabicus; all these 
bruised substances being slowly mingled 
together, except the Capsicum seeds, which 
are hastily thrust, one by one, to the bot- 
tom with a small wooden skewer: each 
seed causes a slight fermentation, and then 
rises to the surface, when it is taken out 
and another put in, to the number of eight 
or ten, when the process is complete. The 
effects of the Upas Antiar on the animal 
system are less speedy than those of Upas 
Tieute, nor is its mode of preparation the 
. same. A small water-fowl, which was 
‘scratched on the thigh with a dart, dipped 
in this newly-prepared poison, died at the 
end of three minutes; it had a strong con- 
vulsion when in the act of expiring, and 
the contents of the stomach came out at 
ACCOUNT OF THE UPAS TREE. 
more dangerous it is, because, when ; 
the beak. An Azurin, a peculiar bird of 
this country died in the same space of - 
time and with similar symptoms. Withall - 
the animals poisoned by the Upas Antiar, | 
there were violent evacuations, both up- 
wards and downwards, generally green and 
frothy. M. Delille, to whom I gave a large 
quantity of this substance, has made, with 
his usual sagacity, a great number of ex- 
periments, which all produced the same 
results, and proved this poison to operate at 
first as a vomit and cathartic, and then to 
affect the brain, and disturb its functions, 
causing death with tetanic convulsions. 
The Jpo of Macassar acts in a similar man- 
ner, and, from the accounts given to M. 
Carrega, is also the product of a large tree, 
and obtained by incision, which identity 
of circumstances and name, together with — 
the similarity of the climates where they — 
grow, give ground for believing it to be — 
identical with the Upas Antiar. The same 
reasoning holds good of the Zpo from Bor- 
neo, which is the juice of large climbers, - 
and acts like the Upas Tieute, which it ' 
resembles also in its intensely bitter flavour. |. 
I therefore believe the substance to be the : 
same, though its mode of preparation i8 
different. In Java, the prepared poison | 
resembles thick and very brown molasses, E i 
Borneo, on the contrary, is concrete, ano - 
kept in palm-leaves ; its dry consistency is T 
obtained by being mixed and braided up . 
with a kind ofearth. Having dissolved some : 
of the Zpo from Borneo in water, à ee 
and friable substance was precipt 
which after having been washed in severa : 
waters and dried, possessed only a slightly 
bitter flavour. p 
“ The Javanese arrows are different from 
those which are used by the inhabitants 
of Borneo. The end, instead of be 
shaped like the head of a lance, is so very 
slender and elongated, that it breaks very 
readily, and remains imbedded 
wound, and as M. Delille has correct? 
observed, the smaller the opening, the 
