Oh. Xni.] MISS OOUTTS' PLANTATION. 209 



precious valuables. What would they have said to a man- 

 drake? 



Near Tarnuh Putih is a plantation belonging to Miss 

 Burdett Coutts, who, it is well known, has spent a con- 

 siderable sum of money in the settlement. Among other 

 benevolent schemes she was anxious to give employment 

 to a number of natives in cultivating the soil, and for that 

 purpose engaged an agent to purchase a piece of land from 

 the Government. It was doubtless her intention to have 

 benefited the Dyaks, and for that end the plantation should 

 have been at some considerable distance on the landward 

 side of Sarawak. But by some strange mismanagement the 

 land was taken on the side of Sarawak most distant from the 

 aboriginal tribes, and where it could by no possibility be of 

 any advantage to the Dyak population. Added to this, the 

 spot selected is most unfavourable for cultivation, the soil 

 being nothing better than a poor and unproductive sand. 

 A new agent succeeded to the management as soon as the 

 location was fairly and irrevocably fix«d, and to him was 

 left the unremunerative duty of making the most of a bad 

 bargain. This gentleman, Mr. Martin, long a resident in 

 Java, has gone to the work with a good wiU, and has un- 

 doubtedly done aU that could be effected under such dis- 

 advantages. During the two years of his management this 

 spot has been cleared; and finding that Bananas were scarce 

 and high-priced in the Bazaar, he determined to plant that 

 tree. It has succeeded weU ; but the cunning natives im- 

 mediately followed suit, and Bananas at once became as 

 abundant and cheap as they were previously scarce and 

 costly. The success of the Banana crop, however, has 

 encouraged Mr. Martin to try others, and he is now cul- 

 tivating pepper plants. 



