180 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



ante, so common in India. The more a part has been permeated 

 by the black resinous wood, the more aromatic and heavier it 

 grows, and they have three or four different qualities, which 

 fetch very different prices. The first is blac' -brown, shiny, hard, 

 and dry ; it has an agreeable perfume, even without being burnt. 



The second quality has now and then little white spots ; it is 

 not as heavy, smooth, shiny, with a fine grain, and suffused with 

 resinous sap. 



The third quality has only very little resinous matter, which 

 can be cut out with the knife, for what the ants and the 

 putrefaction do not consume, is generally cut out with knives. 



The fourth quality is a brown, light fibrous wood ; it really 

 being in its natural condition. This is not exported but used in Siam 

 for ordinary fumigating purposes. Every poor Cochin-chinese 

 Christian must pay a tribute to the king, consisting in two katties 

 of the first quality wood. Whatever more they find they may 

 sell. For this purpose these poor people must go into the 

 wilderness of the mountains in the months of February and 

 March, and search there for this wood. The Siamese call it May- 

 kisna. There is still a better quality, which they called Calampack, 

 but this is not to be found here. The first quality is sold here for 

 six tekal, and the second for four and a half, or at the highest five, 

 of the same coin ; if some merchants trading on these coasts give 

 them goods for it, they reckon 100 per cent higher on his goods, 

 from which fact one may see how great the gain is and how 

 anxious they always are to get people to witness such bargains. 

 The king of Siam takes twenty for each two, and the Siamese weight 

 i? here in use. The king very seldom sells the first quality, but 

 generally the second. Whatever is produced of Gummi Gutta havS 

 to be delivered to the king like the Cardomum, and he sends it 

 away or sells it to the Siamese, or he sends it to Batavia on his 

 ships, to be sold there. The elephants and elephant tusks are also 

 brought to the capital. The horns of the rhinoceros, which are 

 usually shot here in the evening, are delivered to the king, who 

 pays very little for them ; the flesh is said to be bought for food 

 by the Cochin-Chinese. 



28. — I had to pack up my things early this morning and be- 

 fore leaving this excellent country I wanted to give nature one 

 last visit. I first went to the woman who could speak Portuguese 

 and had promised to procure me the roots of the Plumbago Cocci- 



