80 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1818. variety of shrubs and plants in flower, which 
April 14. fully occupied Mr. Cunningham’s attention. As 
we proceeded through the trees, a group of 
lofty palms attracted our notice, and were at 
first supposed to be cocoa-nut trees that had 
been planted by the Malays ; but on examining 
them closer, they proved to be the areca, the tree 
that produces the betel-nut and the toddy, a 
liquor which the Malays and the inhabitants of 
all the eastern islands use. Some of these palms 
were from thirty to forty feet high, and the stem 
of one of them was bruised and deeply indented 
by a blunt instrument. 
Having spent several hours on shore, with- 
out finding any thing very interesting or at all 
useful to us, we returned on board, when we 
found that we had been watched by three na- 
tives, who had walked along the beach, but 
on coming near us, had concealed themselves 
among the trees, from which they had, probably, 
observed all our movements whilst we were on 
shore. They were perhaps deterred from ap- 
proaching us from our numbers, and from the 
muskets which each of us carried ; for our expe- 
rience of the disposition of the natives at Goul- 
burn Island had taught us prudence, and no boat 
was, after that affair, permitted to leave the vessel 
without taking a musket for each man. It was, 
