148 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[February, 
arts of cultivation are exercised in much greater perfection than 
in any other parts of the island ; owing probably to the greater 
density of population, and the consequent necessity of industry. 
The crops yield variously in different parts of the island, but in 
none are they more productive than in the interior from Quallah- 
Battoo. 
The cocoanut, nature's most bountiful gift to her rude children 
throughout the tropical world, is found in all parts of Sumatra ; 
and, in one way or another, is extensively used by the inhabitants 
as an article of food ; though, from the great variety of other pro- 
ductions, it is not actually indispensable, as is the case in some 
islands. Oil is extracted from it for moistening the hair, and 
also for burning in lamps ; though in the interior of the island, 
lights are procured from a species of turpentine called dammar. 
Froin this and other species of palm, is also extracted a liquor 
used in the manufacture of arrack ; while from the head of the 
same tree is procured a kind of cabbage. The villages are care- 
fully surrounded and adorned with eocoanut-trees wherever the 
air and soil are favourable ; while in the seaport towns, where the 
demand is greater, the groves are proportionably larger. The soil 
best adapted to their growth is low and sandy, and near the sea- 
shore, where they come to maturity and, bear fruit in the course 
of a few years. 
1 " Here, stretched beneath these orchards of the sun. 
Give me to drain the cocoa's railky bowl ; 
And from the palm to draw its fresh'ning wine, 
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice • , 
Which Bacchus pours." — Thomson. 
The hetele-nut-tree, greatly resembling in its appearance the 
cocoanut, is cultivated by the natives in large plantations, and is 
eaten with see-sec, a creeping plant of a pleasant aromatic odour. 
Ginger and tobacco are raised in small quantities. The palma- 
christi, of which the best of castor-oil is made, grows here in 
great abundance, and without any trouble.. Sugar is extracted 
horn anou, B. species of the palm. The natives plant a dwarf 
kind of mulberry for the use of the silkworm, but their silk is 
of an inferior quality. Sugarcane is cultivated, though not to 
any great extent, and is chewed as a delicacy. They plant yams 
