SUMATRA. 
during the year. A fpace is left for occafional remarks, and at the con- 
clufion is fubjoin^id a comparifon of the tottU of each colum, for the 
whole dirt rid or refidency, with thofe of the preceding year. This 
bufincfs, the reader will perceive to be attended with confiderable 
trouble, exclufive of the a6:ui:l fatigue of the furveys, which from the 
nature of the country, null necelTarily be performed on foot, in a 
climate not very favourable to fuch excurfions. The journeys in few 
places can be performed in lefs than a month, and often require a much 
longer time. 
The Inhabitants, by the original conEra(5ts of the head men with the 
company, are obliged to plant a certain number of vines : each family one 
thoufand, and each younu; unmarried man* ftv** hvi»arcd; and in order 
to keep up the fucccflion of produce ; fo foon as their gardens attain to 
their prime ftate, they are ordered to prepare others, that may begin to 
bear, as the old ones fall off; but as this can feidom be enforced, till 
the decline br comes evident, and as young gardens are liable to various 
accidents, which older ones are exempt from, the fucceSion is rendered 
in complete, and the confequence is, that the annual produce of eack 
diftrid fluduates, and is greater or lefs,, in the proportion of the quan- 
tity of bearing vines to the whole number. To enter minutely inro the 
detail of this bufinefs, will not afford much information or entertain^ 
nicnt to the generality of readers,, who will however be furprized to hear 
that pepper planting, though fcarcelv an i** lii-tie Ik ill appears to 
be employed in ir<; cuUivation, is nevertbelefs a very abflrufe fcicncc. 
The profoundefl: inveftigations of very able heads, have been be flowed on 
this fubjcdt, which took their rife from the cenfures naturally expretled 
by the Directors at home to the Servants abroad, for a fuppofed mif- 
management, when the inveftment, as it is termed^ of pepper, decreaf- 
ed in comparifon with preceding years, and which the unfavorable - 
nefs of feafons did not by any means account for fatisfadorily. To ob- 
viate fuch charges, it became neceffary for the gentlemen who fuperin- 
tcnded the bufinefs,. to pay attention to, and explain the efficient caufes 
which unavoidably occafioned this fluctuation, and to eflabliib general 
principles 
