746 THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 
as far as human judgment and foresight can penetrate, there is 
nought to impede and everything to insure success. 
There is no description of tropical cultivation that does not afford 
every prospect of success to the agriculturist in Malacca. Of the 
capability of the land for sugar cultivation a high opinion has alrea¬ 
dy been recorded by competent judges, and the patches of cane that 
may be seen here and there throughout the country sufficiently con¬ 
firm that opinion. In the same manner, the coffee grown by the 
natives in various parts, for their own consumption, in very small 
quantities it is true, for they are no great consumers of the berry, 
affords ample proof of what would probably be the result of coffee 
cultivation on a more extended scale. Spices cannot but succeed 
admirably. They have succeeded in Penang and Singapore, while 
Malacca, so far from falling short in the adaptation of its land for 
this cultivation is probably superior to both. Cocoa-nut trees thrive 
most luxuriantly, not only on the sea face but to a far distance in¬ 
land and this without what may be called cultivation, that is, the 
nut is planted and left to grow without further care or attention. 
Plantations of this kind may be pointed out where trees of 4 or 5 
years are in bearing, offering to a small capitalist, who would really 
cultivate the tree, an almost certain profitable return after a few years. 
It is indeed surprising that nothing has yet been done in Malacca 
in the way of cocoanut planting on a large scale. Newbold gives a 
calculation for 7000 trees requiring an outlay of 9800 Rs. before 
yielding at the end of 7 years. He is probably too high in his es¬ 
timate of expense, but I should say that a cultivated cocoanut estate 
would repay the whole expense incurred before the expiration of 7 
years. A large estate of this kind requiring a steam mill to press 
out the oil would undoubtedly prove a most profitable undertaking.* 
Yet with all these natural advantages, with immense tracts of rich 
and fertile land waiting only to be cleared and planted to yield a 
most bounteous produce, with a climate of noted salubrity and a 
country intersected by roads and rivers, Malacca to this day remains 
nearly as much unknown as the interior of an African settlement. 
* So extremely profitable must a cocoanut plantation necessarily prove 
when the trees commence to yield produce, that the expense of cultivation 
is comparatively insignificant. There is the drawback of having to spend 
money during some years without any return, but when the return is made 
it is truly magnificent. Suppose a well cultivated cocoanut estate of 
500 acres, kept in good order and well attended to from the very first, 
the outlay on such an estate before any returns be obtained from it, 
would probably be, including interest, about 15,000 Dollars. Say that 
