THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. /45 
estimated to comprise about 1000 square miles, say 600,000 acres. 
Of these probably (I say probably because the whole subject has 
been so neglected that the books of the Land Office afford no means 
of obtaining any thing' like an estimate even of the extent of land 
under cultivation) not more than 30,000 acres are under cultivation 
at present, and allowing- for roads, rivers See. there are some 500,000 
acres of first rate land available to the agriculturist. Of the fer¬ 
tility of the land of Malacca no one can doubt who has travelled in¬ 
to the interior, nor of its admirable adaptation for every species of 
tropical cultivation. The climate is noted as being one of the most 
salubrious in India and labour is easily procurable. It is indeed 
surprising that under all these favorable circumstances, Malacca 
should have continued so completely unknown, till lately, when some 
sugar planters visited the country, and were fully impressed with the 
great advantages it possesses for that cultivation. One of them has 
recorded their impressions in his evidence before a committee of 
the house of commons, wherein he asserts that Malacca is the finest 
sugar country in the world. There may possibly be a little exagge¬ 
ration in this, but at all events it is a proof of the favorable impres¬ 
sion made on the mind of an experienced judge in such matters, 
by a visit into the interior of Malacca. Few, wonderfully few, are 
the persons who know anything- of the interior of Malacca. Even 
the residents in the place, themselves, are mostly ignorant of its ca¬ 
pabilities. Strangers visiting the place and perhaps seeing no more 
of the interior than is visible during an evening’s drive, go away with 
the impression that it is all very pretty, but at the same time very dull 
and lifeless. True, indeed, it is but a lifeless prospect, but if the 
stranger should have any views of engaging in agricultural opera¬ 
tions, the prospect opening to him as he rides over the undulating 
surface of Malacca, through the rich grain fields and over the gent¬ 
ly rising garden land, is one calculated to raise his enthusiasm, and 
to determine him on travelling no farther in quest of a location. This 
was fully exemplified in the case of the several gentlemen who visi¬ 
ted Malacca last year, but whose subsequent settlement in the coun¬ 
try has probably been interfered with by the late mercantile failures. 
Malacca has been 20 years in our possession, but it is believed that 
these gentlemen were the first that ever visited the interior, which 
has throughout continued a “ terra incognita. ” It is to be hoped 
that they have broken the spell, and that their report will induce 
others to resort to such an admirable agricultural country, where, 
