gi4 
fHR GARBENEkS^ GHRQN 
into a tank toeath, wheie fuitljer suppU^ of watex 
send it off through gutters ito Ya,ts prepared for its 
reception, while the pulp is discharged ftona th^ drum 
intp baskets and thrown into heaps either fpr cattle 
feeding or manure, for either of which I imagine it is 
little suited. 
After the starch in the vats has been allowed to 
subside the water is gradually drawn off, fresh water 
supplied, the whole stirred up and again allowed to 
subside, and the water again drawn off. The treat- 
ment of the starch in this stage depends on the purity 
of the water used — as, unless the Tapioca when pre- 
pared is of the purest whiteness it can hardly be given 
away. Hence, one of the principal points to be 
attended to is the supply of clean water in abundance. 
Affer the starch has becorn.e sufficiently pure it is 
allowed to dry in the vats, whence it is cut out in 
cakes and is then ready for the last stages of prepara- 
tion. If Tapioca flour is required it is placed first on 
racks to dry, then on large, almost flat tin sheets 
which forip the top of a brick flue where an extremely 
gentle fire is kept up. 
is requisite it is submitted to rather 
f,tron|;er heat in concave pans at first, whence it is 
remoyed to th,e previoasly mentioned sheets and kept 
turned oyer y^ith wooden rakes, &c., until it assumes 
the fla,ke-Uke form so familiar to consumers in Europe. 
The fl^es are then sifted, to separate the various 
sizes, and the prepared Tapioca is ready for placing 
in the bags for shipment. 
After a liberal tiffin, for which vit were indebted 
to the proprietor of the estate, Mr. Chea Hoon Bong, 
we started for an estate some 8 miles farther op be- 
Jppging to Mr. Koh Hoon Boh (the name of vyhich I 
have unfortunately forgotten), and as I have mislaid 
all my notes about our first day’s trip I am obliged to ' 
fall back on memory for particulars. 
Now commenced the real business of the day. The 
road from Bukit Bruang to this estate is in some 
places so steep and bad that only light traps are avail- 
able, hence it became necessary for either my com- 
panion or myself to drive while our Chinese hosts 
came on behind in another carriage. As it soon 
became apparent that unless I drove we should remain 
behind at Bukit Bruang, I was compelled reluctantly 
to take the ribbons, more especially as I found that 
our united weight amounted to close on 32 stone, to 
say nothing of the syce, who would be compelled to 
hang on behind soniehow. The road did not belie our 
expectations, as it lies mostly through Tapioca estates, 
and cut up by constant bullock-cart traffic, with the 
end of charred trees projecting on one side, and 
living ones with enormous buttresses jutting out on 
the other, combined with stiff inclines and declines 
and sharp corners, so that it was out of the question 
altogether to think of looking at the vegetation as we 
passed. 
Arrived at our destination, we found tlie machi nery 
in splendid order, in three hours putting through 
120 piculs (a picul is 1331b.) of roots, one-fifth of 
which would be Tapioca eventually. On this estate 
about 2p,ooo acres are under cultivation. Reaching 
Bukit Bruang on ithe return journey safely, we 
changed vehicles, and arrived at Malacca at 8 P.iji., 
visiting a very flourishing Nutmeg plantation belong- 
ing to Mr. Koh Hoon Boh on the way, and leaving 
our hospitable friends at their estates. 
Arrived in Malacca, we found ourselves pretty well 
tired, but our labours were by no means yet at an end. 
My companion had declined several country invita- 
tions to dinner and a bed for each of us, as he had 
always been accustomed to put up at the house of a 
planting friend in Malacca, and depended on being able 
to do the same this time ; consequently, on arriving at 
the entrance, 'we got our traps out and discharged the 
carriage. Judge of our surprise when, after sitting 
down a little while, we were told that Mr. — - was 
away at the plantation. 
Calling a carriage, we started to find somewhere to 
put up at, as Malacca possesses no boarding-house or 
hotel, and as there is nothing to do in Malacca 
after 6 p.m. residents retire early, so on driving to 
one house after another we found them shut up for 
the night. Driving to the residences of some bachelor 
friends we were informed by the servants that “Master 
hud gone for a walk, and the time of his return was 
unpertain.” This caused us to look rather stupidly 
at each other, and after a drive all around the town 
I proposed that we should put up in the carriage for 
^e night, my companion proposing that we should 
go hack and take possession of the house of one of 
pur absent friends. This we acted on, and suc- 
ceeded admirably, being warmly welcomed by pur 
host after the first surprise of finding “ men in posses- 
sion.” 
I have related this incident rather in detail as it 
will help to give some idea of the state of civilisation 
at which Malacca has arrived, and as a “ word in 
season ” to travellers who think of visiting Malacca 
to make sure of a bed before arranging to stay ashore 
a night there. 
Next morning at 6 o’clock we were en route to 
another estate, belonging to Mr. Koh Hoon Boh, at 
Matchap, about 18 miles distant. The first ten miles is 
along the public road, along some parts of which in wet 
situations are large indigenous plantations of the 
Glam (Melaleuca leucodendron), the bark of which is 
used by Malays for caulking their boats. In all direc- 
tions we saw the natives busy planting the Rice 
fields. 
On leaving the public road, however, our troubles 
began j to drive over the road we did the day before 
was a delight compared with the one it now fell to 
our lot to drive over, and it was with no little satis- 
faction that I gave up the reins at Matchap to the 
syce, after his informing me when within 50 yards of 
the house that I had 2 miles more to drive. Here 
we found the primitive style at work. The roots are 
first half-peeled with knives, in which operation a 
large part of the root is cut off, then thrown into a 
tank of water when they are washed by the Chinese 
treading on them ; thence they are lifted in baskets 
to the rasping machine, and worked by a traction 
engine, built in the brickwork, and is regu- 
lated by hand. The pulp falls from the rasper 
into baskets, which are carripd about 20 yards, and 
the contents emptied on muslin covers of concave 
wickerwork baskets, above which a wooden water 
gutter is placed, the supply of water being regulated 
by plugs over the baskets. Here the Chinamen 
separate the starch by arranging a constant fall of 
water on the muslin, and keeping the mass well 
stirred with their hands until they think they have 
extracted all the starch, when they throw the refuse 
pulp away, and receive a fresh supply from the rasper, 
the water with which they wash the pulp serving to 
convey the starch to vats prepared for it. Of course 
the starch prepared in this manner requires more 
washing than that prepared by the machinery I have 
described, and I venture to think that consumers in 
England would prefer Tapioca made by machinery, 
when it need never be handled, to that which is 
carried about so much amongst decaying vegetable 
matter and mud, as that hand-prepared usually is. 
Here the starch is baked by fire passing beneath a 
tile-covered flue on which it is placed. Pearl Tapioca 
is manufactured here as follows : — A cloth is attached 
like a hammock to the beams and kept open by cross 
sticks. A man at each end alternately jerks the cloth 
to and fro, the slightly warmed starch under this 
treatment soon forming small, completely spherical 
balls, which are afterwards baked on a tile-covered 
flue. 
The number of coolies about here was surprising, 
and it is hardly necessary to say that o.mIj about 
30 piculs of Tapioca is produced per diem ; in fact, 
Mr. Koh Hoon Boh is so thoroughly convinced of 
the superiority of manufacture combined with economy 
of the preparation by machinery, after comparing 
the cost at his estate, which we visited the day 
before, with the cost of hand preparation, as at 
Matchap, that he ordered a machine to be erected 
After tiffin we returned to Malacca, where we 
were lodged and fed, in first-rate style, our host 
being Mr. Chea Hoon Bong, whose name is well 
known throughout the Straits (and beyond) as one 
of the most liberal-minded and hospitable Chinese 
gentleman in the colony. The next day we parted 
from our hospitable friends of Singapore per steamer 
Biliton, arriving on Sunday morning loaded with 
presents of fruit for ourselves and Singapore friends. 
Thus ended what is probably the last of my trips 
in the Malay peninsula, and certainly, thanks to 
my companion and our Chinese hosts, the most 
enjoyable one. 
Can you or any of yonr readers give me any 
information as to the probable date of the introduc- 
tion of Tapioca into the Straits, or by what nation it 
was first brought to the East ? I have not Cranford’s 
Descriptive Dictionary of the Indictn Islands to refer 
to, but so far as I recollect he does not mention 
Manihot utilissima, 
2 3 
