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S V M A T R AJ 
enemies, fupported m the rights of fovcreigntyj and to be paid a certain 
allowance, orcuftooi, oo the produce of their refpe^live- territories. 
The price for many yesh paid for the ' pepper, was ten Spanilli Dol- 
lars, or fifty fliillings per l^abar of five hundred weight. By a late rcfo- 
hition of the Company, with a view to the -encouragement of the plan- 
ters, it has been encrcafcd to fifteen dollars. The cuftoms or duty to tlio 
chiefs, varying in different diftrids according to fpecific agreements,- 
may be reckoned on an avefngej at one dollar and an half per bahar. This 
low price at which the natives fubmit to cultivate pepper for u^j and 
which does not produce annually, to each man, more than eight dollars, 
according to the old rate of purchafe i and the complete monopoly we 
have obtained of it, from Moco Moco northward, to Flat Point foiuh- 
ward ; as well as the quiet and peaceable demeanor of the, people under 
fuch reftridions, is doubtlefs in a principal degree owing to the pecu- 
liar manner in which this part of the ifland is CMt ofif from all 
communication with f^rangers, (who might infpire the people with 
ideas of profit and of refiftance), by the furfs which rage along the fouth- 
weft coatlj and a 1 mo ft block up the rivers. The general want of an- 
chorage too, for fo many leagues to the northward of rhe Straits of Sunda, 
has in all ages deterred the Chinefe and other eaftern merchants, from 
attempting to eftabllfh an intercourfe that muft have been attended with 
imminent rlfk, to unlkilful navigators. Indeed I underftand it to be a 
tradition among thofe who border on the fea coafts, that it is not many 
hundred years fincc thcfc parts began to be inhabited, and they all fpeak 
of their defcent as derived from the more inland country.* Thus it 
appears that thofe natural obftrudtions which we are ufed to lament a^ 
the greateft detriment to our trade, are in fa^ advantages to which it in 
a great mcafure owes its exiftence- In the northern countries of the 
* Beanlicu, who vifited Sumatra iji itii, and took much laina to acquire authentic infonna- 
tlon, fays that the fouthcrn part of the weft coail was then woody and uninhabited i and though 
ibis was doubtlefs not ilriiUy true, yet k Ihcws the ideas entertained on the fubje£l by the 
Malays, of whom he made his en^uiiicsi and provei bow iiltU coniinuni cation there was with 
dx ^utlwm people, 
ifland^ 
4 
