SAGO. 
289 
by the Malays In the eastern parts of the Archipelago it forms 
in many places the chief portion of the foot! of the inhabitants. 
In Singapore we know it principally as an imported article pre¬ 
pared by washing and granulation for the European market. 
It comes to us chiefly from the adjacent coast of Sumatra and 
from Borneo, and passes through the hands of Chinese refiners 
before it is purchased for export to Europe. An account of 
the production of sago in the eastern and western parts of the 
Archipelago, the modes in which it is prepared and used by 
the natives, and the process of purifying and granulating it in 
Singapore, may help to fix attention on the fact that the Ar- 
chipelago can furnish any required amount of meal, and 
that its present high price is owing to the succession ot rude 
manipulations, all attended with wastage and expence, which 
it unnecessarily undergoes Instead of being at once care¬ 
fully washed and cleaned at the place of growth, this work is 
there performd in a slovenly and imperfect manner, but with 
more labour probably than a thorough purification by a good 
process would require. It is then packed in small quantities 
in leafy receptacles and arrives here dirty and sour. The 
Chinese have now to do the whole work of cleansing over 
again, with this disadvantage that the farina is no longer fresh. 
Their process too, although' far superiour to that of the Ma¬ 
lays, is imperfect, and involves a considerable waste both of 
material and labour. 
SAGO IN THE MOLUCCAS. 
Amongst all the trees which we have yet mentioned, says 
Valentyn in his account of the vegetation of the Moluccas, there 
is none more useful to the Amboynese than the sago tree. It 
shews itself at first, and for a long time afterwards, merely as 
a bush or shrub, consisting of different upright branches 
which are about 15 or 16 feet high, green, concave in the 
inner side, convex on the outer, and smooth. On the lower 
part of these, long small thorns are seen, which stand in order 
above each other like needles, the middle being always the 
longest. The leaves, which are very long and small, stand out 
on both sides of these branches, are longer, broader, and thin¬ 
ner than those of the cocoanut, and have on the sides soft, erect 
spines. In due time there rises from this bush a stem, which 
# having reached twice the height of a man, gradually loses its 
thorns except those above, which also afterwards gradually 
fall off. The branches, which become tolerably thick, have a 
broad base called gu Y uru, about three feet long and a foot 
broad, being almost like a gutter which surrounds the stem and 
