107 
mating their horracs, or rice marshes, they do not 
value them according to the number of acres or roods 
they contain, but according to the quantity of rice 
that it requires to seed them. 
The principal articles of foreign commerce which the 
island possesses, are iron, steel, timber, rice, sugar, % 
honey, indigo, dyeing woods, cotton, silk, oils, gums, 
resins, mats. The produce of these is capable of being 
extended almost to any degree, with a moderate share 
of exertion; and, were a trade opened with the natives, 
and a sufficient stimulus set before them, they would 
soon establish such a market as would abundantly 
supply the demands of their neighbours. 
In the year 1 776, when Benyowsky was governor, 
the amount of the subsidies paid to him by the chiefs, 
was nine hundred and forty thousand livres, notwith¬ 
standing he was almost continually at war with one 
or other of them, (generally the Seclaves). He had 
laid a foundation for an extensive cultivation of the 
land, which there is no doubt would have been effected, 
had he remained to carry his plans into execution. 
The quality of their produce is of the first rate. The 
timber is fit for ship or house building, as well as 
for ornamental work. The dyeing woods and drugs 
possess a brilliancy of colour far superior to those 
which Europe produces; and they extract an acid 
from the sap of a tree, called the Fig-tree of Adam, 
(a species of banana), which fixes the colours 
unalterably. Of silks they have four species, two of 
which are equal to any brought from the east: and 
