THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 185 
into mats, into a coarse kind of cloth, ropes, and smali 
cordage. Among the many just observations which mark the 
authenticity of the accounts of two Mahomedan travellers, 
who visited China in the ninth century, that of the variety of 
uses to which the cocoa tree is applied is not the least curious. 
" The people of Oman," says one of these travellers, " go to 
" the Cocoa islands, and, having felled the tree, with the 
" bark spin a yarn, with which they sew the planks together, 
" and so build a ship ; of the same wood tliey cut and round 
*' away a, mast ; of the leaves they weave the sails, and the 
" bark they convert into cordage : having thus completed 
" their vessel, they load her with cocoa imts, which they 
" can-y back to sell at Oman." 
Of all the delicious fruits that are produced in the East, 
perhaps I may venture to say in the whole world, the man- 
goostan may fairly set up its claim to the preference. The 
tree on which it grows, though not magnificent, is extremely 
beautiful, bearing, like the orange, both fruit and flowers at 
the same time on the extremities of the branches. This fruit 
is no less fascinating to the eye than it is gratifying to the taste. 
Its form is round, generally a perfect sphere ; the colour a 
bright or dark purple, according to the degree of its ripeness ; 
it rests in a permanent green calj^x, and the upper part is 
surmounted by a corona, which is generally divided into as 
many rays as the fruit within consists of lobes, v/hich arc of 
a delicate white pulpy substance, covering each a small nut. 
The husk or shell contains a brown astringent juice, which, 
with oxyd of iron, maizes a clear shining ink of a deep 
purple. The annexed ]>late will convey a tolerably correct 
B B 
