SUMATRA. 
690 
of the annual value of about £15,000. The pepper vine is 
a hardy plant, growing readily from cuttings or layers rising 
in several small knotted stems, and twining round any 
neighbouring support. If suffered to run along the ground, 
its fibres become roots, in which case, like the ivy, it would 
never exhibit any marks of fructification. It begins to bear 
in its third, and attains its prime in its seventh year, after 
which it declines. The white pepper is made by bleaching 
the grains of the common sort, by which it is deprived of 
its exterior pellicle. This article takes little damage by sub¬ 
mersion in sea water. 
The jealousy of the Batavian government in rigorously 
confining the cultivation of spices to its own islands, is well 
known; and for a long time, all attempts to procure those 
valuable plants were in vain. After the conquest of the 
Dutch islands, however, by the British in 1796, the nutmeg 
and clove plants were brought over, and placed under careful 
management. Among the valuable productions of the 
island as articles of commerce, a conspicuous place belongs 
to the camphor. This peculiar substance is a drug for which 
Sumatra and Borneo have been celebrated from the earliest 
times, and with the virtues of which the Arabian physicians 
appear to have been acquainted. The tree is a native of the 
northern parts of the island only, not being found to the 
southward of the line, nor yet beyond the third degree of 
north latitude. It grows, without cultivation, in the woods 
lying near to the sea coast, and is equal in height and bulk 
to the largest timber trees, being frequently found upwards 
of fifteen feet in circumference. The camphor is found in 
the concrete state in which we see it, in natural fissures or 
crevices of the wood, but does not exhibit any exterior ap¬ 
pearance by which its existence can be previously ascer¬ 
tained ; and the persons whose employment it is to collect 
it, usually cut down a number of trees, almost at random, 
before they find one that contains a sufficient quantity to 
repay their labour. It is said, that not a tenth part of the 
number felled is productive either of camphor or of cam¬ 
phor-oil, although the latter is less rare; and that parties of 
men are sometimes engaged for two or three months together 
in the forests, with very precarious success. The oil is pro¬ 
cured from the same tree, frequently gushing out copiously 
when the tree is cut. 
Benzoin or benjamin is, like the camphor, found almost 
exclusively in the batta country, to the northward of the 
equator, but not to the Achcenese dominions immediately 
beyond that district. It is also met with, though rarely, to 
the south of the line. When the trees have attained the 
age of about seven years, and are six or eight inches in 
diameter, incisions are made in the bark, from whence the 
balsam or gum exudes. The finest of the gum is that which 
comes from these incisions during the first three years, and 
is while, inclining to yellow, soft, and fragrant. The finest 
sort is sent to Europe; and the inferior sorts are sent to 
Arabia, Persia, and some parts of India, when it is burned, 
to perfume with its smoke their temples and private houses, 
expel troublesome insects, and obviate the pernicious effects 
of unwholesome air or noxious exhalations. The greater 
part of what is brought to England, is re-exported to coun¬ 
tries where the Roman Catholic and Mahometan religions 
prevail, to be there burnt as incense in the churches and 
temples. The remainder is chiefly employed in medicine. 
Cassia is produced in the inland parts of the country, and 
is exported in considerable quantities. Rattans also furnish 
annually many large cargoes; and walking canes are found 
near the rivers which open to the straits of Malacca. The 
annual and the shrub cotton are cultivated by the natives, 
but only in sufficient quantities to supply their own wants. 
The silk cotton is a most beautiful raw material, but owing 
to the shortness and brittleness of the staple, is unfit for the 
reel and the loom, and is only applied to the unworthy 
purposes of stuffing pillows and mattrasses. The coffee tree 
is universally planted, but the berry is not of a good quality, 
probably owing to the want of skill in the management. 
Among other articles of commerce is the dammar, a species 
of turpentine or resin procured from a species of pine, which 
is exported in large quantities to Bengal and elsewhere, and 
which exudes from the tree so copiously, that there is no 
need of incisions to obtain it. A drug named dragon’s 
blood is procured from a large species of rattan, which 
grows abundantly in the countries of Palembang and Jambi, 
where it is manufactured and exported, first to Batavia, and 
afterwards to China, where it is highly esteemed. Gambir 
juice is extracted from the leaves of a plant of that name, 
and is eaten by the natives, being supposed to have the pro¬ 
perty of cleaning and sweetening the mouth. The agila 
wood or lignum aloes is highly prized in all parts for the 
fragrant scent it emits when burning. The forests contain 
an inexhaustible store and endless variety of timber trees, 
many sorts of which are capable of being applied to ship¬ 
building; but the teak does not appear to be indigenous to 
the island, although it flourishes to the northward and 
southward, in Pegu and Java. The other remarkable trees 
are the poon, so uamed from a Malay word, which signifies 
wood in general, and is preferred for masts and spars ; the 
camphor wood, used for carpenters’ purposes; the iron 
wood, so named on account of its hardness; the marbau, 
used as beams for ships and houses; the pinaga, valuable 
as crooked timber for frames and knees; the ebony ; the 
kayn gadis, a wood possessing the flavour and qualities of 
sassafras; the rangi, supposed to be the manchineel tree of 
the West Indies, has a resemblance to mahogany. Of the 
various sorts of trees producing dammar, some are also 
valuable as timber; and here also is found the spreading 
banyan free of Hindostan. 
Gold is found chiefly in the interior of the island, none 
being observed to the southward of Limun, a branch of 
Jambi river, nor to the northward of Nalabu, from which 
port Acheen is principally supplied. Menancabow has 
always been esteemed the richest seat of it; and this consi¬ 
deration probably induced the Dutch to establish their head 
factory at Padang, in the immediate neighbourhood of that 
kingdom. Colonies of Malays from thence have settled 
themselves in almost all the districts where gold is procured, 
and appear to be the only persons who dig for it in mines, 
or collect it in streams; the proper inhabitants or villagers 
confining their attention to the raising of provisions, with 
which they supply those who search for the metal. The 
metal is sometimes found imbedded in the rock, when it is 
called rock-gold. It consists of pieces of quartz, more or 
less intermixed with veins of gold, generally of fine quality, 
running through it in all directions, and forming beautiful 
masses, which being admired for their beauty, are sometimes 
sold by weight as if they were all solid metal. The mines 
yielding this sort of gold are commonly situated at the foot 
of the mountain, and t'ne shafts are driven horizontally to the 
extent of from 8 to 20 fathoms. Gold is also found in the 
state of smooth, solid lumps, in shape like gravel, and of 
various sizes, one of which, seen by Mr. Marsden, weighed 
9 ounces 15 grains. Gold-dust is collected either in the 
channels of brooks running over ground rich in the metal, 
in standing pools of water occasioned by heavy rains, or in 
a number of holes dug in a situation to which a small rapid 
stream can be directed. Their instruments for working the 
mines are not, as may be supposed, the most perfect. They 
have for digging an iron crow three feet long; and for beat¬ 
ing the lumps of rock to a powder, a heavy iron hammer is 
used. The pulverized mass is thence carried to the nearest 
place where there is a supply of water, by which the gold is 
separated from the quartz. In the horizontal mines, the 
shaft is supported by timbers, and the water is drawn off by 
means of a drain. In the perpendicular mines it is drawn 
out by means of buckets. The mines of gold are very nu¬ 
merous, amounting to no fewer than 1200 in the dominions 
of Menancabow. Probably only one half of all the gold 
procured reaches the hands of Europeans; yet it is asserted, 
on good authority, that from 10,000 to 12,000 ounces have 
been annually received at Padang alone, at Nalaboo 2000, 
at Natal 800, and at Mocomoco 600. The merchants carry 
the gold from the interior to the sea coast, where they barter 
it for iron and iron working tools, opium, and the fine piece 
goods 
