THE ISLAND OF MINDORO, 
764 
Yuro is the heart or pith of the trunk of a palm known by the 
name of the ca.bo negro , a description of which was‘first given to 
Europe by the celebrated Marco Polo. “ In the kingdom of Fan- 
fur in Sumatra” says this distinguished traveller “ they make a 
kind of flour from certain high trees by the following operation. 
They remove the bark of the tree, which is very thin, and cut the 
trunk into pieces. They then extract the pith which is put to soak 
in water; it is then formed into little cakes, which, when they 
require them, they pound and convert into flour. I have brought 
some of these cakes to Venice, and they have much the flavour 5 of 
barley bread”. 
On cutting this palm, large and strong filaments are obtained 
from it, which, when nipa is scarce, they apply to a similar purpose 
in covering their houses. From the rind of the fruit they make a 
poisonous infusion to which we have previously alluded. From 
the fruit itself they make an agreeable sweet-meat; and lastly by 
making an incision in the upper part of the trunk they obtain a 
sweet and spirituous juice, a sort of tuba,* as highly estimated as 
that obtained from the coco-nut tree, which, if distilled, yields an 
ardent spirit of good flavour, and if placed in the sun for a few 
days is converted into delicate and tasteful vinegar. 
They have also at Mindoro abundance of nami , a root of the 
form of a large potato ;f it is cut into pieces and infused for several 
hours in water, when a mucous liquid with which it is impregnated 
and which is found to be very injurious to the human constitution, 
exudes, and lastly it is pounded and made into cakes. A decoction 
of this root, mixed with those of several other vegetables, produces 
a wine of a very soporiferous nature, of which the Indians know¬ 
how to make use when they wish to take a criminal whom they dare 
not attack in an open manner. An enumeration of all the things 
which nature produces spontaneously in this island, and which, for 
want of better, furnish subsistence to its sparing and indolent inha¬ 
bitants, would be interminable. 
With regard to the topography of Mindoro we are only able 
to give a general idea. From Point Calavite in the north-east, to 
the south point which some call Buruncan and others Devil’s Point 
(Punta del Diablo) the island is thirty-one leagues in extent; and 
from Punta Dumali in the east to Irirum in the west, fifteen in 
breadth; with a circumference of a little more than seventy leagues • 
and, by approximation, with a population of sixty-five souls to the 
square league, counting the Manguians. Between Abra de Ilog 
and Calapan, at four leagues distance from the coast, a mountain 
of great elevation raises itself, being the highest point of a cordil¬ 
lera, which, with many picturesque gaps, gradually declines towards 
the south until it terminates at Point Buruncan, the southern 
* Called tuac by the natives of Timor and the Moluccas. (Translator). 
t The manioc of South America. It is aiso cultivated at Timor and in the 
Moluccas. (Trans.) 
Y25 
