Embassy to the Eastern Courts

Appendix

State of Commerce in the Year 1833, at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Condensed and Brought Into Form From Various Documents

There arrived 1704 national vessels, and departed 1629; and arrived 696 foreign vessels, and departed 617.

The exports consisted of the following articles, viz.:—

	Valuation.
Coffee, 577,764 bags and barrels	10,494,576	000
Sugar, 15,000 boxes, 11,204 barrels, and 7,217 bags	1,459,513	500
Hides, 187,530	754,048	880
Horns, 380,242	48,922	340
Rice, 14,248 bags	80,276	000
Rum, 3,492 pipes	192,928	000
Tobacco, 15,919 rolls	158,584	500
Ipecacuanha, 458 barrels and bundles	59,880	000
Tapioca, 937 barrels and bags	3,002	000
Cotton, 196 bales	1,488	000
Timber, 1,633 dozens	40,860	000
Tanned half hides, 5,210	20,987	000
Gold, diamonds, &c.	2,400,000	000
Valued at	15,715,060	820
	Mil Reis.	Rs.
The imports were valued at	16,560,372	752
The revenue amounted to the sum of	4,847,952	550

There were imported 184,000 barrels of flour, including 13,000 barrels on hand, on the first of January; and there were exported 48,500; and there were on hand, the first of January, 1834, 35,000, which gave 100,500 barrels consumed—164,185 barrels were imported from the United States, and 6,815 barrels from Europe and elsewhere.

The number of foreign vessels despatched during the year, were 565, measuring 149,746 tons, of which,

208	were English,	measuring	53,985	tons.
167	„ American	„	50,410	„
7	„ Austrian	„	1,771	„
5	„ Belgian	„	1,149	„
16	„ Danish	„	4,688	„
26	„ French	„	7,252	„
6	„ Spanish	„	1,059	„
3	„ Dutch	„	1,225	„
13	„ Hamburgh	„	3,919	„
6	„ Montevideo	„	1,054	„
4	„ Neapolitan	„	815	„
40	„ Portuguese	„	7,327	„
26	„ Sardinian	„	5,661	„
21	„ Swedish	„	5,496	„
2	„ Tuscan	„	382	„
2	„ Russian	„	1,366	„
3	„ Bremen	„	904	„
1	„ Roman	„	158	„
9	„ Argentine	„	1,116	„

There were shipped, by American vessels to the United States, 236,708 bags of coffee, and to Europe, 67,043 bags; making 303,751 bags, &c., which is upward of one half of the whole quantity exported.

Production of coffee throughout the world, in 1833:—

	Pounds.
Brazil	92,432,240
Java	40,000,000
Rest of India and Arabia	30,000,000
Cuba	50,000,000
Porto Rico	15,000,000
St. Domingo	40,000,000
British West Indies	20,000,000
French „	15,000,000
Dutch „	10,000,000
Spanish „	10,000,000
Total pounds	322,432,240

Consumption of coffee in 1833, copied from an Antwerp newspaper:—

	Pounds.
Low Countries	90,000,000
Germany and the Baltic	70,000,000
Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean	65,000,000
England and Ireland	25,000,000
France	24,000,000
United States	80,000,000
	354,000,000

	Pounds.
In 1830, Brazil produced 391,785 bags	62,685,600
„ 1831, „ „ 430,672 „	68,907,530
„ 1832, „ „ 513,296 „	82,127,360
„ 1833, „ „ 577,764 „	92,432,240

Being an increase of nearly fifty per cent., from 1830 to 1833.

Coffee consumed in the world:—

		Tons.
The consumption in Great Britain,	is about	10,000
„ „ France	„	20,000
„ „ Netherlands	„	40,000
„ „ Spain and Portugal	„	10,000
„ „ Germany and the Baltic	„	32,000
„ „ United States	„	15,000
		127,000

This quantity is produced as follows:—

British West India Islands	13,390
Java	20,000
Cuba	15,000
St. Domingo	16,000
Dutch West India Colonies	5,000
French ditto and Bourbon	8,000
Brazil and S. Main	32,000
	109,390

Population of Brazil in 1819, continued:—

Whites	843,000
Indians	259,400
Free casts	426,000
Ditto blacks	150,500
Black slaves	1,728,000
	3,406,900

Produce:	100,000 cases sugar, of 15 qtt., of 128 pounds each.
	150,000 bales of cotton, 12,500,000 pounds.
	Between 12 and 13 millions pounds of coffee.

[A]

Of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Malayan Peninsula, and Particularly of the Negroes Called Semang

This subject has afforded matter of curious and interesting speculation, to several writers of modern date. Marsden, Leydon, Raffles and Crawfurd have alternately bestowed a slight attention upon it; but it is one which requires more minute investigation, and would amply repay the labours of the philosopher.

Of the interior parts of the Malayan peninsula, which is the Suvarna or Gold island, one of the three sacred isles of the Hindoos† and the grand depot for souls after death,† there is little known even at the present day, and the researches which have hitherto been made, regarding the Aboriginals of this portion of the East, have as yet been exceedingly defective, and unattended with any satisfactory result. “In our present state of knowledge,” as a late author observes, “I fear we must pronounce that the origin of the nations which inhabit the Indian islands seems buried in unfathomable obscurity, and hardly appears less mysterious than that of indigenous plants and animals of the country they inhabit.”† Mr. Marsden, in the introduction to his Malayan grammar, has quoted the opinion of Sir S. Raffles, (then Mr. Raffles, secretary to the governor of Prince of Wales island,) who published a paper on the Malay nation, in the twelfth volume of the Asiatic Researches, relative to the Aborigines of the peninsula. “The Malays,” observes this author, “seem to have occupied a country previously unappropriated, for, if we except an inconsiderable race of Caffrees who are occasionally found near the mountains, and a few tribes of the Orang-Benua, there does not exist a vestige of a nation anterior to the Malays in the whole peninsula. As the population of the peninsula has excited much interest, my attention has been particularly directed to the various tribes stated to be scattered over the country. Those on the hills are usually called Semang and are woolly headed; those on the plains, Orang-Benua, or people belonging to the country; the word Benua being applied by the Malays to any extensive country, as Benua China, Benua Kling, but it appears to be only a sort of Malay plural to the Arabic word Ben or Beni, signifying a tribe.”† This hypothesis, however, is satisfactorily confuted by Marsden, who asserts that Benua is a genuine Malay word signifying country, region, land, and that a slight variation of the word, as Whennua or Fennua is found in the Bisagan dialects of the Philippines, and the languages of the South Sea islands, bearing a precisely similar signification. In my inquiries among the Malays, I have not been able, however, to discover that the term Orang-Benua (which is literally Aborigines or people of the land) is ever applied to any particular race of the Malayan peninsula, the supposed Aboriginal tribes being styled Sakei or Orang-Bukit, Orang-Laut or Semang. According to the Malayan legends, indeed, there is a race of wild people said to be found in the interior of Buman, the boundary between the states of Perak and Salengore, designated Tuah-Benua† by the Salagorians, and known at Quedah by the name of Mawas. They are represented as bearing a strong resemblance to the Mawa or long-armed gibbon, and instead of having a bone in the lower part of the arm, they have a piece of sharp iron which serves the double purpose of an arm and a cleaver for cutting wood. There is another savage race, according to the Malays, called Bilian, who are covered with hair, and have nails of extraordinary length. Their principal occupation is said to be tending the tigers, which are their peculiar flock, as the buffaloes are of the Malays. In rainy nights, they are represented by the Malays as sometimes coming to their residence and demanding fire, which those who are acquainted with their savage disposition, hand them upon the point of a sumpit or arrow tube, or at the extremity of a sword; as were the person to present it with his hand, he would inevitably be seized and devoured by the savage monster, a fate, which the credulous Malay firmly believes, has befallen many. It is admirable how the Mahometans of the present day even, assign to these regions inhabitants so aptly coinciding with the mythological superstitions of the Hindoos. Fitter subjects could not indeed be attributed to the sovereign of darkness, whose abode is said to be in the peninsula of Malacca, than the Mawas and Bilian races above described; whose appearance is quite consistent with what some intelligent Christians even, consider as the imps of the infernal regions, and it is still more remarkable that the supposed residence of the Mawa species is, according to the Malays, in the very neighbourhood of the city of the Hindoos, yama-pari, or the grand depot for souls after death. Another circumstance deserving of notice is, that the Menang-Kebans of Sumatra, supposed to be the primitive Malays, “deduce their origin from two brothers named Perapati See Batang and Kei Tumunggungan, who are described as being among the forty companions of Noah in the ark, and whose landing at Palembang, or at a small islet near it named Lauha Pura, (probably the small island of Lucepara) is attended with the circumstance of the dry land being first discovered by the resting upon it of a bird (Perapati is literally a pigeon) that flew from the vessel. From thence they proceeded to the mountain named Sigantang-Gantang, and afterward to Priangan in the neighbourhood of the great volcano, which at this day is spoken of as the capital of Menang-Kaban.”† There is a mountain called Gunon-Gantang in the Perak country, the supposed Yama-puri, and what is still more extraordinary, the king of Perak, in opposing the claims of the Siamese to a Boonga-Mas or Golden Flower, in a letter to a friend, says, “I am he who holds the royal sword and the dragon Betel Stand, and the shell fish which came out of the sea, which came from the hill of Segantang.” I do not profess myself to be sufficiently conversant with the subject, to reason farther on this singular coincidence, but it appears to me that many curious inferences might be drawn from it, and I shall leave the matter for the investigation of a more scientific pen.

At Perak, the principal tin country of the peninsula, there are two distinct races of wild people in the interior, the one called Semang, resembling those of Quedah in personal appearance, but speaking a different dialect, somewhat more civilized, and fond of collecting silver and gold, with which they ornament their spears and knives, which they obtain in exchange for the products of the wood; the others are called Orang-Sakei by some, and Orang-Bukit or hill-people by others.† They are much darker complexioned than the Malays, but fairer than the Semangs, and speak a distinct language of their own. They are not so timid as the Semangs, and sometimes come down to the Malayan villages to amuse the inhabitants by their peculiar dances and music. Their ordinary dress consists of pieces of bark beat out, tied round their middle, but in their woods they are frequently met quite naked. Both tribes are reported to be pretty numerous on the hills which divide the Perak from the Patani states, and they are often engaged in hostilities with each other. They are not so untractable as the Semangs, and some of their children are trained up as domestics in the Malayan families.

The Orang-Laut is a race of people resembling the Malays in appearance, who live almost entirely on the water; they are certainly the Ichthyophagi of the East, and they subsist wholly upon fish. Dr. Leyden supposes the Battas of Sumatra to be the Ichthyophagi described by Herodotus; but there are several circumstances in his description which would seem to contradict such a supposition. The same author also, in alluding to the Batta Anthropophagi or cannibals of Sumatra, says:† “This inhuman custom is not however without a precedent in history, for Herodotus positively asserts that the Padang or Pedasi, about five hundred years before our era, were not only addicted to the eating of raw flesh, but accustomed to kill and eat their relations when they grew old.” Now it is curious that Batta or Battey, for the name is written both ways, seems to be the very word which in Greek, is rendered Padasi, the letter P being almost always pronounced B among several of the Indo Chinese nations, as in the word Pali, which is almost always pronounced Bali. The following is the account which Herodotus gives us of the Paday or Padasi:—“Another Indian nation, who dwell to the eastward of these, (the Indian Ichthyophagi,) are of Nomadic habits and eat raw flesh; they are called Paday and are said to practise such customs as the following: whoever of the community, be he man or woman, happens to fall sick, his most familiar friends, if it is a man, kill him, saying, that by his pining in sickness, his flesh will be spoiled for them, and though he deny that he is sick, they do not attend to him, but put him to death and feast on him. When a woman falls sick, she is treated in like manner by her most intimate female associates. They also sacrifice and feast on him who arrives at old age, and this is the reason that so few ever attain it, for they kill every one who falls sick, before that period.”† Although this account corresponds in some particulars with the habits of the Battas, yet it differs materially in others. The Battas, it is well known, inhabit the central parts of Sumatra and but rarely approach the seashore; they could not therefore be termed Ichthyophagi, as they scarcely see fish. The Orang-Laut of the present day are not known to be addicted to cannibalism, though it is extremely probable they were in former times, as they yet retain all the characteristics of the most savage life. They rove about from one island to another, and are found in greatest numbers about the Lancavy group of islands opposite Quedah, and likewise in the straits of Singapore, Dryon, Banca and Belitong. They subsist wholly by fishing, and are very expert at striking fish with the spear; they live principally in small canoes: sometimes when the weather is boisterous, or their little barks require repair, they erect temporary huts on the seashore: they are almost all covered with ring-worms and scorbutic eruptions, and have altogether a most squalid, wretched look; they are sometimes, when chance throws them in the way and they have become a little civilized, employed by the Malays to pull an oar, at which from their continual practice, they are very expert; “their religion is,” (as Symes says of the Andamaners,) “the genuine homage of nature,” offering up a hasty petition to the sun and moon. Of the origin of that most singular and curious race called Semang,† the Malays possess no tradition: certain it is, however, that the tribes of them which inhabited various parts on both sides of the peninsula, were much more numerous before many of the Malayan colonies were founded by emigrants from Sumatra. The Semangs are designated by the Malays Semang Paya, Bukit, Bakow and Bila. The Semang Paya are those who reside on the plains and borders of morasses; the Semang Bukit whose abode is on the hills, and the Semang Bakow are so called from their frequenting the seashore, and occasionally taking up their quarters in the mangrove jungles; the Semang Bila are those who have been somewhat reclaimed from their savage habits and have had intercourse with the Malays. A similar race of people are said to have formerly inhabited all the islands of the Archipelago, and small parties are still to be found on many of them. To the eastward they are called Dyake, and on the east coast of the Peninsula, Pangan. They are at present most numerous in the interior of Jan, a small river to the northward of Mirlow, near the lofty mountain Jerei, in the Quedah territory. There are small parties also in the mountains inland of Jooroo and Krian, opposite Pinang. Their huts are temporary dwellings, (for they have no fixed habitations, and rove about like the beasts of the forest,) consist of two posts stuck into the ground, with a small cross-piece, and a few leaves or branches of trees laid over to secure them from the weather; some of them indeed, in the thicker parts of the forest, where the elephants, tigers, and other wild animals are most abundant, make their temporary dwellings upon the cliffs, and branches of the large trees; their clothing consists chiefly of the inner bark of trees, having no manufactures of their own; a few who have ventured to approach the Malayan villages, however, obtain a little cloth in exchange for elephant’s teeth, gahru, dammer and canes, which they procure in the forest, but of the intrinsic value of which they possess little knowledge, and are imposed upon by the crafty Malay. From the Malays also, they procure their arms, knives and tobacco, of which last they make great use; they in turn frequently impose upon the superstitious Malays, when they have no products to barter and wish to procure a supply of tobacco, by presenting them with the medicines derived from particular shrubs and trees, which they represent as efficacious for the cure of headaches and other complaints. The Semangs subsist upon the birds and beasts of the forest and upon roots; they eat elephants, rhinoceroses, monkeys, and rats, and with the exception of the partial and scanty supplies which they obtain from the Malays, they have no rice nor salt: they are very expert with the sompit, and poison their darts with the ipoh, procured from the juice of various trees, which are deadly poison; they handle the bow and spear with wonderful dexterity, and destroy the largest and most powerful animals by ingenious contrivances. They seldom suffer by beasts of prey, as they are extremely sharpsighted, and as agile in ascending trees as the monkeys. Their mode of destroying elephants, in order to procure their ivory or their flesh, is most extraordinary and ingenious; small parties of two and three lie in wait, when they perceive any elephants ascend a hill, and as they descend again, (which they usually do at a slow pace, plucking the branches as they move along,) while the hind legs are lifted up, the Semang, cautiously approaching behind, drives a sharp-pointed bambic or piece of weebong, which has been previously well hardened in the fire, and touched with poison, into the sole of the elephant’s foot, with all his force, which effectually lames the animal and most commonly causes him to fall, when the whole party rush upon him with spears and sharp-pointed sticks, and soon despatch him. The rhinoceros they obtain with even less difficulty. This animal, which is of solitary habits, is found frequently in marshy places, with its whole body immersed in mud, and part of the head only projecting. The Malays call them bodak tapa, or the recluse rhinoceros. Toward the close of the rainy season, they are said to bury themselves in this manner in different places, and upon the dry weather setting in, and from the powerful effects of a vertical sun, the mud becomes hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros cannot effect its escape without considerable difficulty and exertion; the Semangs then prepare themselves with large quantities of combustible materials, with which they quietly approach the animal, who is aroused from his revery by an immense fire over him, which being kept well supplied with fresh fuel, soon completes his destruction and renders him in a fit state to make a meal of; the projecting horn on the snout is carefully preserved, being supposed to be possessed of medical properties, and highly prized by the Malays, to whom they barter it for tobacco and other articles.

A more simple and natural mode of bestowing names cannot well be imagined, than that adopted by the Semangs: they are called after particular trees: that is, if a child is born under or near a cocoa-nut, or durian, or any particular tree in the forest, it is named accordingly. They have chiefs among them, but all property is in common; they worship the sun. Some years ago, I am told, the bindahava or general of Quedah, sent two of these people for the inspection of some of his English friends, at Penang; but shortly after leaving Quedah, one of them, whose fears could not be appeased, became very obstreperous, and endeavoured to upset the small boat, in which they embarked; the Malays, therefore, with their usual apathy and indifference about human life, put the poor creature to death, and threw him overboard; the other arrived in safety, was kindly treated, and received many presents of spades, hatchets, and other implements, which he appeared to prize above every thing else. On his return to Jan, he built himself a small hut, and began to cultivate maize, sugar-cane, and yams, and it is said that he is still there, and is a quiet inoffensive man. This man was, at the time of his visit to Penang, according to report, about thirty years of age, four feet nine inches in height: his hair was woolly and tufted, and of a glossy jet-black;† his lips were thick, his nose flat, and belly very protuberant, resembling exactly the natives of the Andaman islands. The Semangs are found also at Tringand, on the eastern side of the peninsula. I am informed by the Malays that the dialect of that tribe is different from those of Quedah, but much the same as of those near Malacca: they are not of such a jet-black, glossy appearance as the Semangs from Quedah, nor as the Andamans. There is little doubt that the degenerate inhabitants of the Andaman islands, in the bay of Bengal, are descended from the same parent stock as the Semangs, and it is extraordinary that they have preserved the same uniformity of manners and habits, through such a series of ages. It will be seen by a reference to the following specimen of the Semang language, that there is a very material difference in many of the words collected by Colonel M’Lunes, (late Malay translator at Penang,) from a Semang or Jan, and published by Mr. Crawfurd, and those collected by Mr. Maingy, the president of Province Wellesley, (government of Penang,) from the Semang of Jooroo, and that the Andaman language bears no resemblance to either.

Specimens of the Semang Language in Two Dialects, and of the Andaman

English.	Semang Jooroo.	Sensing Jan or Quedah.	Andaman.
Earthquake	Talila
Land	Teh Karmon	Teh	Tatonguangu
Mountain	Maidap	Tabing Chubak
Plain	Teh Haita
Sand	Pasain
Island	Paloo
Road	Ha
Water	Ho	Bateao	Migway
Sea	Lawat	Lant
River	Sungei	Sungai
Flood	Pasing
Ebb	Suit
Sun	Milkatok	Milkatok	Allag
Moon	Bulan	Kachit	Tabei
Stag	Binting
Rain	Ujar		Oye
Fire	Us		Mona
Smoke	E’el
Lightning	Kilat
Thunder	Kai
Wind	Bioh
Cloud	Miga
Dark	Tin, Amea
Light	Cha hai
Cold	Gun, Amad		Choma
Hot	Pedee		Mooloo
Black	Belteng	Belting	Cheegheoga
Charcoal	Auggu	Mannying
Ashes	Tebut	Tapip
Cloth	Budbud	Panzah
Tree	Kuing	Chuck
Leaf	Klee
Rattan	Latei
Bough	Teboa
Flower	Bungei
Rice	Bei	Bayas
Salt	Ceam	Siyah
Milk	Boo
Teeth	Kabis
Life	Gamas
Sick	Myi
Fever	Maa
Smallpox	Champang
Man	Tumbal	Teunkal	Camolon
Woman	Mabei	Badon
Virgin	Kedah
Father	Kan	Ai
Mother	Boh	Mak
Brother	Tobai	Inak
Sister	Wan-Ku-Man
Infant	Wang	Wanganeg
Husband	Tee
Marriage	Goon
Body	Pee
Mine	Eng
Flesh	See
Bone	Gehee	Aieng	Geetonggy
Blood	Muhum		Cochengohee
Head	Kula Kuyi	Kai	Tabay
Face	Mid
Ear	Pal	Anting	Quaka
Mouth	Tenut	Ban
Tooth	Lemum	Yus	Maboy
Tongue	Litig
Belly	Koad	Cheong	Napoy
Nipple	Bou	Chas
Hand	Tong
Fingers	Wantung		Momay
Thumb	Boaling
Hair	Saa
Nail of the hand	Tiku Tong
Arm	Belang		Pilei
Foot	Chan
Nail of the	foot	Tiku Chan
Toe	Wong Chan
Eye	Meda		Tabay
Nose	Muck	Neak	Mellee
Tiger	Chiai	Taiyo
Hog	Tuban, Badai
Dog	Wan	Ek
Deer	San	Rusak
Elephant	Ta-Meen-da	Gazah
Crow	Eghail
Peacock	Mah
Monkey	Jayo
Buffalo	Kebao
Rat	Tikus
Cow	Lemboh	Lembok
Fowl	Kawao
Duck	Itek
Fish	Ikam		Nabohee
Snake	Ekob
Bee	Galu
Crab	Kandun
Ant	Kesub	Les
Egg	Mahu
Nest	S’am

Tea

It is well known wherever tea is used, that there are two descriptions of it, the black and the green. In the account of the domestic commerce of China heretofore mentioned, it is shown that the black teas are brought from the province of Tuh-keen, (which lies at the distance of about four hundred miles from Canton,) and the green teas from Keang-nan, (at the distance of about eight hundred miles.) The hilly upland districts of these provinces are the native and favourite soils of the tea-tree. It has not been supposed that these leading kinds of tea, as an article of wide consumption, were the produce of the same tree—but it has been and still is questioned, whether the black and the green teas are the produce of plants specifically differing, or whether these differences of colour, flavour, &c., are the result of the action of soil and sun on the same original tree. Botanists have never been permitted to traverse these provinces, and so decide this question; we believe however, that their opinion now is, that there must and do exist differences sufficiently great to be denominated specific, between the black-tea tree and the green-tea tree.

Beside this region producing the real tea of commerce, the greater part of the Chinese provinces, and even Cochin-China and Japan, have their tea-tree. The provincial tea of China is a widely different, and very inferior article, though used by the poorer local population; and sometimes when prices are high, it is used to adulterate, before exportation, the true tea. Perhaps the grape is the only plant whose produce can be compared for singular diversity of flavour, &c., to the tea of the tea-tree. The delicious “Woolung” differs as totally from the common Souchong, as does the “Vin ordinaire” of the worst districts, from the “Chambertin of Burgundy.”

We are not aware that there is any thing peculiar in the cultivation of the tea-tree, except that, like the mulberry, it is kept down to a sapling size, to secure a tenderer leaf, and to render its gathering the more easy. It is said to be cultivated by small proprietors, who sell the produce of their tea-groves to collectors, called at Canton “teamen.” These collectors leave Canton in the winter and spring with their own, and perhaps a loaned capital, and after purchasing, curing and packing, as much tea as their means will command, return with it to Canton in the autumn. In the curing of tea, we are not aware that any unwholesome methods are regularly resorted to—it is certain, however, that iron filings have sometimes been detected in black teas, and that the colour of the green is sometimes attempted to be heightened by a little “Prussian blue.” It is perhaps from a few cases of this kind, that prejudices have been excited against this wholesome, temperate and social beverage. The green tea, when arrived at Canton, is spoken of in the market as a “Sunglo,” or a “Hyson” tea; the black tea is called a “Mohea,” or an “Anki” tea. These names, derived from the districts where the tea is grown, are used as general distinctions of flavour and quality—the “Hyson” and “Mohea” being sweeter and more valuable—the “Sunglo” and “Anki,” more astringent and less esteemed teas. These names are however almost unknown to the consumers in Europe and America. The names with which they are familiar, are found under both these general distinctions in tea. The Hyson—Hyson Skin—Young Hyson—Gunpowder and Imperial, all green, may be either Sunglo or Hyson teas. These names, viz.: Hyson, Hyson Skin, &c., merely designate the sortings, or siftings of the green leaf into its different sizes, or stages of growth, but plucked from the same tree. The Hyson, being the full-grown, mature leaf, has hitherto been in much the greatest quantity; but the increasing demand for Young Hyson, Gunpowder and Imperial—younger leaves—will no doubt be followed by a corresponding effort to increase by a different time of gathering, the proportion of these kinds of tea.

There is not so much care taken in sorting the produce of the black-tea tree. Its rougher, coarser leaf cannot be made to curl or roll when dried, like that of the green-tea tree. In the spring, the first sproutings of its twigs and tender leaves are gathered—these make the Pecco tea; they may be distinguished by the white down which covers them, as it does the spring shoots of other plants; hence the name “Pih-haou,” white down. In the course of the summer, there are three other gatherings, each less valuable than the preceding, of the leaves of the black-tea tree. The “Congo,” the great article for the English market, is made from one of the early gatherings, without any mixture of inferior tea. The “Campoi,” though not at the present day a favourite article, or a very inferior one, has a large clean leaf, and should be, as its name signifies, a “selected” tea. It is not correct to say that the “Souchong” is an inferior tea. Its name merely designates it as a “small-leafed” tea; its different qualities take in a wide range of flavour and value. Its first gatherings, from favourable soils, are delicious teas; while the third crop, “Souchong,” is superior only to Bohea. The “Pouchong” is only a peculiarly packed tea; a clean unbroken black tea is chosen and tied up in small papers to make Pouchong tea; its name signifies “enveloped,” or a “packed tea.” The very inferior article called “Bohea,” is at the present time, rather a manufacture than a growth of tea. Its name is corrupted from “Woo-E” the hills bearing the black tea. It is now prepared either in the country, by mixing the refuse of the Souchong, or with “Wa-ping,” a neighbouring provincial tea, or at Canton by adding farther, the tea which has been damaged on its passage from the interior, and all the leaves within reach of collection, which have been once infused and dried again.

The “teamen” are in the habit of affixing the same name, year after year, to the tea which they bring to market; this name given to their whole parcel, or to each of the qualities it may contain, is called the “Chop” name. The foreign resident at Canton has little or no intercourse with the “teamen.” The “hong” merchants, or the merchants trading through the hongs, are the medium of sale; they often, however, purchase largely on their own account and judgment from the “teamen.”

The Dutch learned the use of tea at Bantam from the Chinese, and first introduced it into Europe in 1610. It was not known in England until after 1650; and from 1700 to 1710, there was imported less than eight hundred thousand pounds; but from 1710 to 1810, it amounted to seven hundred and fifty millions of pounds: between the years 1810 and 1828, the total importation exceeded four hundred and twenty-seven millions, being on an average of between twenty-three and twenty-four millions a year. In the year 1831, the quantity amounted to twenty-six millions, forty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty-three pounds; and in the season of 1832-33, the export of the English Company was thirty millions, thirty-six thousand, and four hundred pounds. The expiration of the English East India Company’s charter, and the ill success of the Netherlands Trading Company, are now turning the commerce in this valuable article into private hands. At the close of the company’s charter, (in 1834,) the consumption of tea in the United Kingdom, was estimated at thirty-two millions of pounds. Under the free trade now opening, it may be estimated at thirty-five millions. The consumption of the rest of Europe, imported almost entirely through Hamburgh and Holland, may be estimated at five millions of pounds. The quantity imported into Russia by land from China is not included.

The American trade to China commenced in 1784-5; and that season, eight hundred and eighty thousand, one hundred pounds, were exported. In the next season, six hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds were taken. In 1786-7, five ships were engaged in the trade, and they exported one million, one hundred and eighty-six thousand, eight hundred and sixty pounds; but in the season of 1832-3, fifty-nine vessels exported thirteen millions, two hundred and fifty thousand, one hundred and eighty-five pounds of the following descriptions:—

			Catties.
Bohea, 13,665 quarter chests of 50 catties each,		making	683,255
Souchg. and Pouchg.	39,538 chests 50 catties	„	1,876,900
H. Skin and Tonkay,	36,608 „ 52 „	„	1,903,616
Young Hyson,	51,363 „ 70 „	„	3,595,410
Gunpowder and Imp.	12,583 „ 83 „	„	1,041,899
Hyson,	14,248 „ 49 „	„	710,972
Pecco,	2,563 „ 49 „	„	125,587
Catties,			9,937,639
Equal to pounds,			13,250,185

The consumption of the United States, and the ports supplied from the commerce of the United States, may be estimated for 1834, at fifteen millions of pounds.

We have therefore a total annual consumption, on this side of the Cape of Good Hope, of this great staple of China, of fifty-five millions of pounds. This amount will in a few years be increased to sixty millions. The quantity of tea exported by the Dutch cannot be accurately estimated. Some seasons there are five or six ships engaged in the trade, and in other seasons there are none: when there is any deficiency it has been supplied by the Americans. The quantity exported to British India averages about two millions, three hundred thousand pounds annually. The export by vessels of other nations is very inconsiderable.

The Portuguese, notwithstanding their direct, early, and intimate connexion with China, neglected to import it, being very indifferent to its use; they, as well as the Spaniards, place but little value on it even to this day; coffee and chocolate being preferred in Spain and Portugal, as well as in South America, Mexico, Cuba and Porto Rico, with the addition of the Yerba de Paraguay or Maté, the favourite beverage of the Spaniards of La Plata, Paraguay, Chili, and other parts of South America.

Comparative Estimate of the Principal Exports From Canton to the United States

	1822-23.	1823-24.	1824-25.	1825-26.	1826-27.	1827-28.	1828-29.	1829-30.	1830-31.	1831-32	1832-33	Catties each.
Bohea, one fourth chests	10,018	2,413	5,795	3,340	1,095	1,100	901	1,904	3,592	12,182	13,665	50
Souchong & Pouchong	37,828	29,296	31,566	24,527	27,405	24,775	17,216	25,428	17,514	39,596	39,538	50
Hyson skin & Tonkay	37,134	32,426	56,788	45,299	29,395	33,926	18,097	68,134	5,447	20,883	36,608	52
Young hyson	22,165	31,217	39,303	45,461	28,487	31,085	26,192	29,476	25,528	40,065	51,363	70
Gunpowder & imperial	4,899	5,587	6,817	8,019	5,992	6,614	4,888	6,289	3,953	9,117	12,553	83
Hyson	14,703	11,562	14,501	19,072	8,915	14,963	11,264	11,197	7,147	9,346	14,248	49
Pecco	175	315	215	368	377	--	191	366	205	517	2,563	49
Total chests	127,022	112,816	154,985	146,086	101,666	112,463	78,749	102,794	63,386	131,706	170,538
Cassia, peculs	7,773	6,459	8,624	9,023	4,035	7,209	2,916	2,888	1,828	3,541	7,428
Silks--Crape, pieces	91,447	55,616	103,236	46,703	29,615	69,028	24,605	9,660	5,881	9,507	4,559
„ Crape shawls	156,631	142,425	220,635	264,630	104,060	}				77,570	77,876
„ Crape scarfs	45,264	8,683	8,100	15,800	4,160	} 57,293	101,425	87,304	102,162		--
„ Crape dresses	32,457	23,298	46,500	58,050	32,940	}
„ Florentines	4,295	3,846	2,879	1,025	750	2,135	850	400	--	--	--
„ Sarsnets	46,264	45,384	64,231	62,662	20,474	23,489	17,295	25,439	53,385	27,455	22,289
„ Senshaws	24,145	12,302	10,919	7,740	9,485	14,957	11,340	10,113	25,810	22,292	13,172
„ Pongees	5,649	2,850	2,967	2,145	5,369	13,530	16,087	10,491	41,439	44,578	48,741
„ Handkerchiefs	92,338	37,877	80,979	90,985	42,635	76,569	24,314	14,662	14,189	23,157	27,274
„ Satins	8,150	5,614	7,384	7,880	10,881	18,606	4,836	5,154	8,985	6,965	7,201
„ Levantines	10,944	8,645	9,600	6,280	7,657	13,497	7,382	4,356	6,155	13,643	6,351
„ Camlets	--	--	--	--	1,477	2,620	2,465	310	990	3,500	1,091
„ Droguets	--	--	--	--	425	--	--	--	--	--	--
Sewing silk,peculs	75	58	75	41	18	184	144	164	354	350	72
Raw silk	--	--	--	--	210	157	68	230	285	109	144
Nankeens,pieces	1,070,707	259,506	765,000	664,000	267,405	524,500	392,900	305,568	118,774	122,285	31,500
Total value $	6,760,582	5,006,243	7,716,444	7,650,938	3,806,708	5,318,966	3,337,480	3,629,722	3,356,551	5,577,731	6,691,412

Average Prices for Teas

	1822-23.	1823-24.	1824-25.	1825-26.	1826-27.	1827-28.	1828-29.	1829-30.	1830-31.	1831-32.	1832-33.
Bohea tea	11	--	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11
Souchong	22	--	25	20	18	18	17	17	16	18	20
Pouchong	--	--	--	--	18	18	17	24	20	20	25
Hyson skin	21	--	28	27	18	21	21	18	18	24	27
Tonkay	--	--	--	--	18	23	24	22	20	24	30
Young hyson	33	--	40	40	25	33	30	32	30	44	47
Gunpowder & imperial	55	--	50	50	55	50	45	48	49	56	58
Hyson	40	--	40	45	40	40	40	42	42	46	49
Pecco	55	--	50	60	60	60	60	60	80	50	55

Export of Teas for Account of the English Company, to London, Season 1832-1833

Bohea Peculs	52,844	Cost Tales	837,556
Congo	139,640	„	3,315,811
Souchong	2,321	„	86,482
Tonkay	23,103	„	631,866
Hyson	6,579	„	342,947
Hyson Skin	786	„	21,450
	225,273
	133⅓
Pounds†	30,036,400	on account of the English Company, exported during the season 1832-33
	13,250,185	by vessels of the United States.
	43,286,585	Pounds of tea exported by America and English vessels, from Canton, in the season 1832-1833.

Annual Revenue Obtained by the Government of Siam From Farms and Duties

Names.	Annual quantity.	Prices in ticals.	Duties.	Revenues.
Paddy and rice	1,696,424 coyans of 23 picul	1st sort 16 ticals	}
„ „	„ „	2d „ 14 „	}	862,358
„ „	„ „	3d „ 12 „	}
Orchards	68,235 in No.			545,880
Vegetables	4,251			17,800
Samsoo or spirit shops	Bang-kok			104,900
„ „	Sieuthaja			16,000
„ „	Bangxang			8,000
„ „	Suraburi			4,000
„ „	Krungtaphan			4,000
Bazars	Bang-kok			39,200
„	Sieuthaja			12,800
„	Suraburi			1,600
„	Bangxang			1,600
Duty on floating houses				36,000
Chinese gambling				64,000
Siamese, ditto				58,000
Teak wood	127,000 trees			56,000
Sapan wood	200,000 piculs	1st sort 3½ to 3	}
„ „	„ „	2d „ 2½ to 2	}	84,000
„ „	„ „	3d „ 1½ to 1	}
Cocoanut oil	600,000 „	7½ to 8	1¼ to 1½	56,000
Sugar, 1st	10,000 „	8½ to 9	}
„ 2d	60,000 „	7 to 7½	}
„ 3d	20,000 „	6 to 6½	}1½	40,000
„ black	1,000 „	2½ to 3	}
„ candy	5,000 „	16 to 17	} ½
Jaggery	150,000 jars	18 tcls. p. 100 jrs.	2 tcls	8,000
Salt	8,000 coyans	2½ to 3	6	32,000
Pepper	38,000 piculs	10 to 11	1½	23,200
Bastard cardamums	4,000 „	32 to 40	6 tcls	16,000
Cardamums	1st. 100 „	360 to 380 }	„
„	2d. 150 „	280 to 300 }	16 „	5,400
„	3d. 300 „	200 to 220 }	„
Sticlac	8,000 „	12 13 14	1¼	9,500
Tin	1,200 „	24 26 28	3 tcls	18,200
Iron	20,000 „	4 5 6	„	54,000
Ivory	300 „	160 170 180	12 ditto	2,500
Gamboge	1st 50 to 60	75 to 80 }
„	2d 150 „	55 to 60 }	6 ditto	1,200
„	3d 50 „	40 to 45 }
Rhinoceros horns	50 to 60	800 per picul	32 per picul	1,600
Benjamin	100 „	50 to 55		400
Bird’s-nests	}	1st srt. 10,000	}
„ „	} 10 to 12	2d „ 6,000	} 6 ticals	32,000
„ „	}	3d „ 4,000	}
Young deer’s horns	26,000 pairs	1½ to 2	10 per 100	3,600
Old, ditto, ditto	200 piculs	8 to 9 per pecul	½
Buffalo ditto	200 piculs	3 to 4 per picul	¼	Ticals.
Deers’ nerves	200 „	16 to 20	1½
Rhinoceros skins	200 „	7 to 8	½	800
Tigers’ bones	50 to 60	50 to 60	3 ticals
Buffalo hides	500 „	8 to 10	½
Deers’ ditto	100,000 „	20, 25, and 30	3 ticals	1,600
White dried fish	4,000 „	8 to 9	½
Black, ditto	15,000 „	7 to 8	½	18,000
Small dried fish	60,000 „	3 to 4	¼
Dried shrimps	10,000 „	30 to 35	3 „	4,600
Balachang	15,000 coyans	50 to 60	12 „	8,000
Wood oil	15,000 piculs	3 to 5	½	5,600
Pitch	10,000 „	3 to 4	½	6,000
Torches	200,000 bundles	5 ticals per 100	½	5,600
Rattans	200,000 „	4 „ „	½	14,000
Firewood
Wooden posts	1st. 500 to 600 in No.	1 per 4 ticals	}10 per 100	8,000
„ „	2d. 3,000 „	1 per 2 do.	} 5	„
„ „	3d. 200,000 „	100 per 25 30 40	} 10 „	8,000
Bamboos	600,000,000 in No.	3 ticals per 100	15 100	3,000
Attaps	95,000,000,000 „	3 ticals per 1000	20 „	1,600
Rose wood	200,000 „	342 per picul	10 „
Bark	200,000 bundles	100 per 6 ticals		1,600

	Ticals.
Provinces under the superintendance of the crommahathai, or 1st minister	32,000
Ditto ditto ditto of the croomkallahom, or 2d ditto	24,000
Ditto ditto ditto of the crommatha, or 3d ditto	12,000
Revenue of Justice under the Crammamuang	4,800
„ of the Tribunal	8,000
„ derived from the gold in the province called Bangtaphan,	180 ticals weight of gold.
„ „ „ in the province called Pipri	60 ticals weight of gold.
Tribute which the Malays pay for gold mines,	216 ticals weight of gold.

EXPENDITURE.

Salaries which the king pays to the government officers annually	618,800
Alms to the Talapoins and the poor	87,600
Monthly allowances to the sons of the late and present kings, and the second king	29,000
Annual salaries of all the princes employed, and the minors	47,400
Annual pay of the Talapoins	18,240

Statement of Annual Consumption and Value of Indian Opium in China, for the Following Seasons

Seasons.	Patna and Benares.					Malva.					Total.
	Chests.	Price.			Value.	Chests.	Price.			Value.	Chests.	Value.
		Lowest.	Highest.	Average.			Lowest.	Highest.	Average.
1816-17	2610	1080	1320	1200	3,132,000	600	800	950	875	525,000	3210	3,657,000
1817-18	2530	1200	1330	1265	3,200,450	1150	600	800	612	703,800	3680	3,904,250
1818-19	3050	800	1200	1000	3,050,000	1530	600	850	725	1,109,250	4580	4,159,250
1819-20	2970	1150	1320	1235	3,667,950	1630	950	1400	1175	1,915,250	4600	5,583,200
1820-21	3050	1300	2500	1900	5,795,000	1720	1230	1800	1515	2,605,800	4770	8,400,800
1821-22	2910	1650	2500	2075	6,038,250	1718	1050	1600	1325	2,276,350	4628	8,314,600
1822-23	1822	1180	2550	1552	2,828,930	4000	1080	1500	1290	5,160,000	5822	7,988,930
1823-24	2910	1100	1900	1600	4,656,000	4172	800	1050	925	3,859,100	7082	8,515,100
1824-25	2655	900	1450	1175	3,119,625	6000	550	950	750	4,500,000	8655	7,619,625
1825-26	3442	800	1150	913	3,141,755	6179	560	850	723	4,466,450	9621	7,608,205
1826-27	3661	800	1250	1002	3,668,565	6308	860	1060	942	5,941,520	9969	9,610,085
1827-28	5134	815	1220	998	5,125,155	4401	950	1420	1204	5,299,920	9535	10,425,075
1828-29	5965	880	1100	940	5,604,235	7771	750	1250	968	6,928,880	13132	12,533,115
1829-30	7143	805	1000	860	6,149,577	6857	740	1030	862	5,907,580	14000	12,057,157
1830-31	6660	790	1050	870	5,790,204	12100	520	760	588	7,114,059	18760	12,904,263
1831-32	6060			953	4,234,815	8265			704	5,818,574	14225	11,501,584
1832-33	6931			798	4,459,170	14454			570	8,258,155	21385	13,757,290

Average Consumption of Fifteen Years, Ending 31st March, 1832

		Catties.
Chests of Patna and Benares,	19,954 chests,	weighing 1,995,400
Or candareens of extract of 50 touch		1,596,320,000
Chests of Malva	24,600	weighing catties 2,460,000
Or candareens of extract of 75 touch		2,952,000,000

Total chests.	Total candareens of extract.	Number of smokers, at 3 17-40 candareens per day.
44,554.	45,466,320,000.	4,152,716.

Tumbah Tuah’s Letter of Thanks to Captain Geisinger, Bencoolen, August 31st, 1832

The commander of the United States ship-of-war Peacock, during our short stay at Bencoolen, presented one of the principal rajahs of that place some American tobacco, and the following letter of thanks was sent, written in the Malayan character, which, being translated into English, is as follows:—

“BY THE MERCY OF GOD:

“This friendly epistle is the dictate of a heart very white, and a face very clean, written under a sense of the greatest respect and most exalted love, permanent and unchangeable as the courses of the sun and moon; this is to say from me—a gentleman—Tumbah Tuah of Bencoolen, the Paseer Marlborough. Now may God the Holy and Almighty cause this to arrive before the face of his glorious excellency, Colonel Geisinger, the head man who commands in the American ship-of-war, which is now at anchor off Rat island, in the harbour of Bencoolen.

“Furthermore, after this, the object of this letter is to acknowledge the present of American tobacco sent to me, and which I have duly received through the love of Knoerle the resident of Bencoolen; this is the message [present] of your lordship to me rajah, &c., [two names.] Wherefore I return praise to God, and my expressions of gratitude—thus much.

“Besides this, I can only pray the Lord your God to grant you peace and long life. Amen.

“The gentleman,
“TUMBAH TUAH.

“Bencoolen, the 31st day of the month of August in the year 1832.”

The superscription was as follows:—

“Presenting itself before the visage of his Excellency Colonel Geisinger, commanding the American ship-of-war.”

Translation of a Letter From the Sultan of Muscat to the President of the United States

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.

“To the most high and mighty Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, whose name shines with so much splendour throughout the world. I pray most sincerely that on the receipt of this letter it may find his Highness, the President of the United States, in high health, and that his happiness may be constantly on the increase. On a most fortunate day and at a happy hour, I had the honour to receive your Highness’s letter, every word of which is clear and distinct as the sun at noonday, and every letter shone forth as brilliantly as the stars in the heavens. Your Highness’s letter was received by your faithful and highly honourable representative and ambassador Edmund Roberts, who made me supremely happy in explaining the object of his mission, and I have complied in every respect with the wishes of your honourable ambassador, in concluding a treaty of friendship and commerce between our respective countries, which shall be faithfully observed by myself and my successors, as long as the world endures. And his Highness may depend that all American vessels resorting to the ports within my dominions, shall know no difference, in point of good treatment, between my country and that of his own most happy and fortunate country, where felicity ever dwells. I most fervently hope that his Highness the President may ever consider me as his firm and true friend, and that I will ever hold the President of the United States very near and dear to my heart, and my friendship shall never know any diminution, but shall continue to increase till time is no more. I offer, most sincerely and truly, to his Highness the President, my entire and devoted services, to execute any wishes the President may have within my dominions, or within any ports or places wherein I possess the slightest influence.

“This is from your most beloved friend,
“SYEED BIN SULTAN.

“Written on the twenty-second day of the Moon, Jamada Alawel, in the year Alhajira 1249,† at the Royal Palace in the city of Muscat.

“This letter is to have the address of being presented to the most high and mighty Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, whose name shines with so much brilliancy throughout the world.”

Translation of the “Chinese Chop,” relative to the United States’ Sloop-of-war Peacock, D. Geisinger, Commander, and sent to the Hong-Merchants at Canton.

“Chung, Imperial Commissioner at the Port of Canton, Tsunhwan of Jeho, &c., &c., hereby issues an order to the Hong-Merchants:—

“The Custom officers at Macao have reported, saying: On the sixteenth day of the present Moon, [November ninth, 1832,] the pilot, Leu Kefang reported, that on the sixteenth, the American cruiser Geisinger† came and anchored off the Nine islands; that immediately he went and inquired why he came and anchored, and that the captain of the said ship replied, that he sailed from his own country to Manila, and a gale having driven him hither, he had anchored for a short time; but that when the wind should become fair he would set sail and depart. Now on examination it is ascertained that there are in the ship two hundred foreign seamen, twenty-four cannon, one hundred muskets, one hundred swords, nine hundred catties of powder, and nine hundred balls. Uniting these circumstances they are forthwith reported. Having obtained this information, we ordered the pilots to keep a strict watch and guard (against the ship.) Moreover, as it is right, we send up this report.

“This coming before me, the hoppo, and having ascertained that the said cruiser is not a merchant-ship, nor a convoy, and that she has on board an unusual number of seamen, cannon and weapons, she is not allowed, under any pretext, to anchor, and create disturbances. Wherefore, Let her be driven away. And let the “hong-merchants,” on receiving this order, act in obedience thereto, and enjoin it upon the said nation’s Tae-pan,† that he order and compel the said ship to depart and return home. He is not allowed to frame excuses, linger about, and create disturbances, and so involve offences, that would be examined into and punished. Let the day fixed for her departure be reported. Haste! haste! A special order.

“TAOU KWANG.

“Twelfth year, twenty-second day of the ninth intercalary moon.”†

Note.—The truth of the matter is, the pilot, who came in the mandarin-boat, was informed, that the Peacock was on a cruise and last from Manila, and came there for provisions, and when she was supplied, and otherwise ready, she would proceed to sea. But nothing was said to him that she was driven there in a gale of wind from Manila. An order was issued commanding the Peacock to quit the waters of China, but no notice was taken of it, for the ship remained at Linting for six weeks after. So inefficient is the navy of China in the present day, that the Peacock alone could destroy the whole “imperial fleet,” and have passed up to Canton and back with a leading wind, without receiving any material injury from the forts, as their guns are firmly imbedded in stone and mortar, and they can only be fired in one direction.

The End

Footnotes

[^] Goods are trans-shipped from these places, without government deriving any advantage.

[^] The legend of the Jos House, Hoe-chong-sze or Idol temple of Honam:—

Jos is a corruption of the Portuguese word Deos, God. Every idol temple is here called a Jos House; to worship any superior being is expressed by, to Chin-chen-Jos. This great temple was, originally, a garden, belonging to the family of Ko; about eight hundred years since, a small Budha temple was built and named, Tseen-tsow-sze, “the temple of ten thousand autumns.” It remained an obscure place till about the year 1600, when a priest of eminent devotion raised its character, and his disciple “Oh-tzze,” by his superior talents and sanctity, together with a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances, raised the temple to its present magnificence and extent. During the reign of Kang He, the second of the reigning Tartar dynasty, in the year 1700, Canton province was not fully subjugated; and the emperor’s son-in-law, entitled Ping-naw-wong, “the subjugator of the south,” reduced the whole to his father’s sway, and took up his headquarters in the Honam temple, according to the Tartar and Chinese usage. There were, on the island, thirteen villages which he had orders to exterminate. Previously to carrying into effect this order, the king, a blood-thirsty man, cast his eyes on Oh-tzze, a fat, happy, priest, and remarked, that were he to live on a vegetable diet, he could not be so fat—he must be a hypocrite, and should be punished with death. He drew his sword to put in effect the sentence; but the limb suddenly withered, and thus prevented its execution. That night a divine person appeared to him in a dream, and warned him that Oh-tzze was a holy man, and must not, unjustly, be killed. The following morning the king presented himself before Oh-tzze, confessed his crime, and immediately his arm was restored. He then did obeisance to the priest, took him for his preceptor and guide, and, morning and evening, waited on him as a servant. The thirteen villages heard of this miracle and solicited the priest to intercede in their behalf: he complied with their request, was successful, and the Honam villages were saved. Their gratitude to the priest was unbounded; and estates, incense, and money, were poured upon him. The king also persuaded his officers to make donations to the temple, and it became affluent from that day. A hall for the celestial kings was still wanting, and by seizing a fishpond belonging to a wealthy man who had refused to sell it, sufficient ground was obtained upon which to build it. The pond was filled up and built upon within the short space of thirty days. It is sometimes called the Lok-wa-sze, “the green temple.”

[^] Yet the prince, who assumes this latter title, is said to have received investiture from China, as a tributary king.

[^] This is an expression used by inferior officers, in corresponding with superiors, when referring to themselves.

[^] On the right bank of the river, which is called Bang-kok—the word Bang-kok is derived from ban, a house, and kok, a garden. Most of the fruit used at the old capital, came from this place.

[^] One of the sons of the wang-na watches at the temple, near the funeral pile, night and day, till the body is consumed; the ashes of the consumed body are then thrown into the river with many ceremonies; and the unconsumed bones are then delivered to the priests, and made into household gods.

[^] He speaks and writes the English language with considerable fluency, and his pronunciation is very correct.

[^] The present king is very desirous of encouraging foreign commerce to enter his ports, and the perplexities and endless changes which formerly annoyed them, are now removed. As long as the present king lives, this wise policy will be pursued. The amount of imports is rapidly rising in importance. A historiographer is regularly employed at the court of Siam, and the recorded events are deposited in the public archives.

[^] See Appendix A.

[^] Samples of goods should be in readiness, which will save great trouble.

[^] The baat or tical has been assayed in Calcutta and valued at two shillings and sixpence sterling. I have given it the same value as the European traders—viz., sixty-one cents.

[^] The turomudi and turobatu have the principal management in navigating the boat; the former has charge of the after part of the prahū and seeing the water bailed out, which is done by a bucket and pulley; the latter, that of the rigging and forward part, under the direction of the turomudi.

[^] The culture of coffee was first introduced into Java in 1723.

[^] The value of a Spanish dollar in this copper coin is styled a “black mamoody.” The abovenamed copper coin is the quarter Ana of the British East India Company; eleven and a half “white mamoodies” constitute one Spanish dollar, (this is invariable.) It is a nominal money or money of account.

[^] Sir S. Raffles remarks: “Farther investigation may, perhaps, establish Java and Sumatra, or rather the Malayan ports, (in which general term, we may include all the islands containing the Malayan ports,) as not only the Taprobane or Taprovana of the ancients, but also the sacred isles of the Hindoos.” See History of Java, vol. i., page 5.

[^] “As Ptolemy places Ma-Lancapuri in the same longitude with the Pauranies, he must have used the same data, which he had, probably, received from the Hindoos, whom he conversed with at Alexandria. Ma-Lanca being, according to the Pauranies, in the centre of the peninsula, it must be of course in about four degrees of latitude north, and there it is placed by Abul Fayil, and in 4°. 20′, by Ptolemy. Ma-Lanca is called, in the Pauranies, Yamala and Malaya, which last denomination it still retains. It is styled also Chanchan-apuda, or with the Golden Skirts. It may be translated the country of the Golden Feet, a title assumed by the emperor of Ava, and other kings of that part of the world: and the Malayan breeze is as famous in the East, as the Sabaean in the west, and its capital was also called Saba or Zaba. In the beginning of the Brahmanda-purans, it is declared, that the stronghold of Yama Tri-cuta, that is to say, the peninsula of Malacca, is one hundred yo-janas long, and thirty broad, which is sufficiently accurate. Ptolemy mentions, there is a place, called Malaioncolou, probably, from the Sanscrit, Malaya-Culum, which implies a place on the borders or shores of Malaya; the same is called Maletur by Marco Polo; Malayatir and Malaya-Culom, are synonymous.† It is singular, that the city of Canca-Nagera, or Ma-Lancapuri, is placed by Ptolemy in the exact latitude of the river Dinding, in the Perak territory, (which is known as the Temala, or Land of Tin, of the same author,) and which is, no doubt, the same city alluded to in the Sejara Malaya, or Malayan Annals, written in the year of the Hajeirat, 1021, or a little more than two centuries ago. It is therein mentioned, that Rajah Suran Padshah, (said to be a descendant of Alexander the Great,) formed the design of subjugating China, and for this purpose his men-at-arms, and the rajahs dependant on him, assembled from every quarter, with their hosts, to the number of one thousand and two lacs. With this prodigious host, he advanced against China, and in his course, forests were converted into open plains—the earth shook, and the thickets moved—the lofty grounds became level, and the rocks flew off in shivers, and the large rivers dried up. Two months he marched on without delay, and the darkest night was illuminated by the light of their armour, like the lustre of the full moon; and the noise of the thunder could not be heard for the loud noise of champions and warriors, mixed with the cries of the horses and elephants. Every country which Rajah Suran approached, he subdued and reduced under his subjection, till at last he approached the country of Gangga Nagara, the rajah of which was named Ganggi Shah Juana, which city is situated on a hill of very steep approach in front, but of easy access in the rear.† Its fort was situated on the banks of the river Dinding, in the vicinity of Perak.” It is also worthy of notice, that there are two rivers under this mountain, which bear the name of Sangah Kechil and Sangah Besar, or the small and great Laugah. It will also be observed, by a reference to any of the charts of the straits of Malacca, that there is an island, called Callum, or Collong, which forms the straits of the same name, and which are about a day’s sail from the Dindings. There is a river of the same name on the main, from which much tin is exported, and which is, perhaps, the Malaion-Colon of Ptolemy, and Malaya-Culum of the Sanscrit, notwithstanding the powerful arguments against such a supposition. It must not be omitted to notice besides, that there is another river to the southward of Colong, called Langar, which bears such a striking affinity to Lanca. An intelligent author (Mr. Crawford) asserts, that ‘The word Kolon is, without any alteration, Javanese, and means the west, and the compound word, Malayu-Kolon, exactly in the order in which it stands, means, ‘Malays of the west;’ and there is an unanswerable objection against supposing Malayu-Kolon to be on the Malayan peninsula, or supposing this to be the Golden Chersonesus or Khruse, at all, which will occur at once to every one familiar with the well-known history of the Malays. It is this—in the age of Ptolemy, and for many ages after it, the Malayan peninsula was uninhabited, or inhabited only by a few negro savages, resembling the cannibals of Andaman, wretched beings, with whom there could have been no intercourse, or at least no commerce. Malays did not emigrate from Sumatra, their parent-country, and settle in the Malayan peninsula, until the comparatively modern period of 1160, a thousand years after the time of Ptolemy, while Malacca was not founded until 1252, and every other Malay state, on the peninsula, is of a still more recent foundation.’—History of the Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 190, 191.

[^] Crawford’s Archipelago, vol. i. p. 36.

[^] We are informed by Marsden, that the Sumatrans are firmly persuaded that various particular persons are what they term “betuah,” (sacred, invulnerable, not liable to accident.) The belief which prevails in that island, however, among the Malays, of the transmigration of souls, does not extend to the Malays of the peninsula, who have spirits and imaginary beings of their own, among which we may safely reckon the Mawas and Bilian. Mr. Marsden says of the Sumatrans: “They have an imperfect notion of a metempsychosis, but not in any degree systematic, nor considered as an article of religious faith. Popular stories prevail among them, of such a particular man being changed into a tiger, or other beast. They seem to think, indeed, that tigers, in general, are actuated with the spirits of departed men, and no consideration will prevail on a countryman to catch or to wound one, but in self-defence, or immediately after the act of destroying a friend or relation. They speak of them with a degree of awe, and hesitate about calling them by their common name, (ariman or machang,) terming them respectfully sewa, the wild animals, or even nenck, (ancestors,) as really believing them such, or by way of soothing them, as our ignorant country-folks call the fairies ‘the good people.’”

[^] In the history of Sumatra, there is a description of two races of wild people on that island, called Orang Kubu and Orang Gugu; the latter of whom seems to correspond with the description of the Bilian of the peninsula. “In the course of my inquiries among the natives,” observes Mr. Marsden, “concerning the Aborigines of the island, I have been informed of two different species of people, dispersed in the woods, and avoiding all communication with other inhabitants. These they call Orang Kubu and Orang Gugu. The former are said to be pretty numerous, especially in that part of the country which lies between Palembang and Jambi. Some have, at times, been caught, and kept as slaves, in Labun; and a man of that place is now married to a tolerably Kubu girl, who was carried off by a party that discovered their huts. They have a language quite peculiar to themselves, and they eat promiscuously whatever the woods afford, as deer, elephants, wild hogs, snakes, or monkeys. The Gugu are much scarcer than these, differing in little, but the use of speech, from the Orang Utau of Borneo, their bodies being covered with long hair. There have not been above two or three instances of their being met with by people of Labun, (from whom any information is derived,) and one of these was entrapped many years ago, in much the same manner as the carpenter, in Pelpay’s fables, caught the monkey. He had children by a Labun woman, which also were more hairy than the common race, but the third generation are not to be distinguished from others. The reader will bestow what measure of faith he thinks due to this relation, the veracity of which I do not pretend to vouch for. It has, probably, some foundation in truth, but is exaggerated in the circumstances.”—See History of Sumatra, p. 41.

[^] See History of Sumatra, pp. 332, 333.

[^] Major Milford’s Essay on Asiatic Researches, vol. x., pp. 144, 145, 146, 147.

[^] Forrest alludes to a remarkable mountain in this quarter: “Gunang Jantong, hanging hill, is remarkable, near Laroot river.”

[^] This race of people seem to correspond in their appearance and habits with a tribe called Jokong, which Sir S. Raffles describes as being found near Malacca, (Asiatic Researches, vol. xii., p. 109): “I had an opportunity,” remarks this author, in his paper on the Malay nation, “of seeing two of these people, from a tribe in the neighbourhood of Malacca; it consisted of about sixty people, and the tribe was called Jakoons. These people, from their occasional intercourse with the Malayan villages, dependant on Malacca, speak the language well to be generally understood. They relate, that there are two other tribes, the Orang Benna and the Orang Udai. The former appears to be the most interesting, as composing the majority; the latter is only another name for the Semang or Caffres. They are not circumcised, and they appear to have received some instruction regarding Nabi Isu, or as they pronounce it, Nabi Isher. They, however, have no books, nor any word for God, whom they designate by the Portuguese word Deos. The men are well formed, or rather short, resembling the Malay in countenance, but having a sharper and smaller nose. They marry but one wife, whether rich or poor, and appear to observe no particular ceremony at their nuptials; the consent of the girl and the parents being obtained, the couple are considered as man and wife.”

[^] On the language and literature of the Indu Chinese nations. (As. Res. vol. 10, 202, 203.)

[^] Herodotus, Lib. 3, s. 99.

[^] Dr. Leyden, in his disquisition on the language and literature of the East, makes mention of the negro-tribes as follows: “The Papuas, termed by themselves Inglote, but by the Spaniards of the Philippine islands, ‘Nigritos del Monte,’ from their colour of woolly hair, are the second race of Aborigines in the Eastern isles, in several of which they are still to be found, and in all which they seem to have originally existed. Some of these divisions have formed small savage states, and made some advances towards civilization; but the greater part of them, even with the example of more civilized races before their eyes, have betrayed no symptoms, either of a taste or capacity for improvement, and continue in their primary state of nakedness, sleeping on trees, devoid of houses or clothing, and subsisting on the spontaneous products of the forest, or the precarious success of their hunting and fishing. The Papuas, or Oriental negroes, seem to be all divided into very small states, or rather societies, very little connected with each other. Hence their language is broken into a multitude of dialects, which, in process of time, by separation, accident, and oral corruption, have nearly lost all resemblance. The Malays of the peninsula consider the language of the blacks of the hills as a mere jargon, which can only be compared to the chattering of large birds, and the Papua dialects in many of the Eastern isles, are generally viewed in the same light.” See As. Res. vol. x. p. 218.

[^] “The East Insular Negro,” says Crawford, “is a distinct variety of the human species, and evidently a very inferior one. Their puny stature and feeble frames cannot be ascribed to the poverty of their food, or the hardships of their condition, for the lank-haired races, living under circumstances equally precarious, have vigorous constitutions. Some islands they enjoy almost exclusively to themselves, yet they have in no instance ever risen above the most abject state of barbarism. Wherever they are encountered by the fair races, they are hunted down like wild animals of the forest, and driven to the mountains and fastnesses, incapable of resistance.” (Crawford’s Archipelago, vol., i. p. 26.) Sir Everard Home gives the following description of a Papua negro, carried to England by Sir S. Raffles, Hist. of Java, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 235: “The Papua differs from the African negro in the following particulars: his skin is of a lighter colour, the woolly hair grows in small tufts, and each hair has a spiral twist. The forehead is higher, and the hind head is not so much cut off. The nose projects more from the face, the upper lip is longer and more prominent, the lower lip projects forward from the lower jaw to such an extent that the chin forms no part of the face, the lower part of which is formed by the mouth; the buttocks are so much lower than the negro as to form a striking mark of distinction, but the calf of the leg is as high as in the negro.”

[^] The Company’s agents, in Canton, do not give the number of chests in their returns of teas shipped.

[^] Corresponding to seventh of October, 1833.

[^] The Chinese always omit the name of the ship, and insert the name of the captain.

[^] Consul.

[^] November sixteenth, 1832.