GATHERING TEA-LEAVES.
"The gathering takes place only in clear weather; and for the bestteas the picking is confined to the afternoon, when the leaves are thoroughly dry, and have been warmed by the sun. Only the thumb and forefinger are used in plucking the leaves from the bush; the pickers are generally women and children, who can gather on the average about forty pounds of leaves in a day. It takes nearly four pounds of leaves to make one pound of dry tea; and the usual estimate is that a plantation of one hundred thousand plants can send ten thousand pounds of tea to market in the course of a year.
DRYING TEA IN THE SUN.
"Different kinds of tea require different treatment, as we have already seen. For green tea the leaves are roasted as soon as they have been gathered, and are then rolled and dried; but the leaves intended for black teas are spread on bamboo trays five or six inches deep, and placed on frames where they can have plenty of sun and air. They remain here from noon till sunset; and if the weather is damp they are further dried by artificial heat. For this purpose they are placed on frames over shallow pans containing burning charcoal, and are tossed and stirred with the hand until they emit a certainfragrance. The heat should be very slight; and the frames are made so high that it is necessary for a man to mount a small ladder in order to reach the trays.
"The sense of smell in the skilful workers of tea is very acute, and they can tell, to almost a minute, the exact time when the drying should cease, and the next process begin. The Chinese workmen are better than any others for this branch of the business, and on many plantations the most of the manipulation is performed by Chinese, though their labor is more expensive than that of the Malays. Our host showed us through his factory, where the men were busy in the various processes; and as he told us about each step of the business, he took us to the department where that particular work was going on.
DRYING OVER CHARCOAL.
"After showing the leaves spread out on the frames, he led the way to a sort of stove, where a man was manipulating some tea in a pan over a charcoal fire.
ROASTING TEA.
"'This is what we call roasting,' he said, 'and the great object of the roaster is to dry the leaves without burning them. You see he does not allow them to be quiet a single instant, but tosses and turns them in all directions, so that none may stick to the bottom of the pan, which they might easily do, owing to the moisture they contain.'
"We watched the roasting till we thought we understood it well, and as the place was hot we did not care to stay there a great while. The leaves lose their fragrance when first thrown into the roasting-pan, and give out a rank smell, but they gradually recover their perfume, and are ready for the next process, which is called rolling.
"The tea from the roasting pan was given to a couple of men, who stood in front of a table or bench, with bamboo mats before them. One had a large mustache, the largest we had ever seen on a Chinese face, and the other consoled himself for the absence of that hairy ornament by smoking a pipe.
"The roller takes as much tea as he can cover with both his hands, and places it on the mat in a sort of ball. He keeps them closely together, and rolls them from right to left; this motion gives each leaf a twist on itself, and rolls it so firmly that it retains the shape when dry. This part of the work requires peculiar dexterity, and can only be performed successfully after long practice. When a man becomes skilful in it, he can roll the tea with wonderful rapidity; and when his work is done, every leaf will be found separate from all the others, and twisted as though it had been passed through a machine.
HANDY WITH HIS FEET.
"The work of rolling the tea is very tiresome, and so the men sometimes perform it with their feet when they wish to give their hands a rest. We saw one man at his occupation in this way, and he certainly seemed to enjoy it. His bamboo mat was on the floor, and he had his trousers raised so that his legs were bare from the knee down. He rested his arms on a pole, and kept his feet moving over the handful, or ratherfootful, of leaves he was endeavoring to roll out. Our host picked up some of the tea, and showed us that it was perfectly prepared, and quite acceptable in every way. The man's toes were much more slender than toes usually are, and it is doubtless due to the fact that he has used them a great deal, and never cramped them into tight-fitting boots.
"After they have been properly rolled, the leaves are spread on trays, and exposed to the sun and air for several hours, and then they are once more roasted. The second roasting is milder than the first, and is done over a slower fire; and afterwards the leaves are rolled again, to make sure that none of them have become spread out. For the black tea the roasting is done in a shallow pan, the same as the first; but the green teas are put in a deep pan, and subjected to a very high heat.
ROASTING GREEN TEA.
"While the green tea is being roasted, there must be a great deal of care on the part of everybody concerned. The pan is nearly red-hot when the tea is put into it, about a pound at a time, and the operator in charge keeps it in rapid motion. One boy tends the fire, while another stands by with a fan, to prevent the burning of the tea.
"After their final roasting, the teas are put in a long basket, shaped like an hour-glass, and having a sieve in the centre. This basket is placed over a charcoal fire and submitted to the heat for several minutes, when the tea is poured out and receives another rolling. This operation is repeated several times, till the tea is thoroughly tired of it, and also thoroughly dry. Then it is passed through sieves, to separate the different qualities from each other; and finally it is winnowed, to remove all the dust and dirt. Then it is 'fired,' or dried once more, to drive away the last particle of moisture; and in this condition it is ready to go into the chests in which it is carried to the lands where it is to be used.
"There, we have told you all about the preparation of tea, which we could not do in China for the reason that we did not go into the part of the country where they produce the tea. China is not the only country where tea is made, though it once had the monopoly of the business. A great deal is grown in Japan, as you know, and now you have learned about the tea-growing in Java. They say that ten million pounds are grown in Java every year, and the product will increase to double that amount in less than twenty years. About the time the culture of tea was introduced into Java, the East India Company tried it in India; and now the production of tea in that country is so large that the English hope, before the end of the century, to supply the whole of their home market with Indian teas. We shall see.
"The Java teas have a sharp, acrid taste, and are not suited at all to the American palate. None of them go to America, or, at least, only a few chests every year, and for some time Holland was the only market for them. Gradually their sale extended to Germany, and now it is said there is a demand for them in London.
"We tasted some of the tea, and found that it resembled what is called 'English breakfast,' only it had a stronger flavor. It is said that it is worth much more than Chinese tea, for the reason that a pound of itwill give nearly double the amount of the infusion ready for drinking. Whether this is true or not we are unable to say, as we have seen no experiments to prove or disprove it.
"We asked about the reputed adulterations and dyeing of tea by the Chinese and others. Our host told us that no teas in Java were adulterated or dyed, but he said it was quite possible they would be as soon as there was a demand for them. He said the Chinese did not begin to color their tea till they were urged to do so by English and American merchants, who told them the dyed teas sold better than others by reason of presenting a finer appearance.
"'The coloring-matter,' said he, 'consists of gypsum and Prussian blue or indigo, and is used in about equal proportions. This is for green tea, and the quantity to be used for a given amount varies according to the market for which it is intended. American merchants wish their teas dyed more heavily than do the English, and there is usually about half a pound of dye to every hundred pounds of tea.'
"'Can't we raise tea in America?' Fred asked.
TEA REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.
"'Certainly,' replied the planter, who had been in the United States, and spent several years there. 'There is a large area of the United States where tea could be raised, and the government some years ago spent considerable money on an experiment in tea-culture. It was found that there was no difficulty in raising the plants; but when it came to manipulating the productthe high price of labor made it unprofitable. When we can furnish labor for the same price that it can be had in China, Japan, Java, and India, we can compete with those countries in growing tea, but until that time we had better let the business alone.'"
ROASTING-BASKET.
Greatly pleased with their visit to the tea and coffee plantations, our friends returned to Bandong. On the way back they had an accident that for a few moments was quite exciting, and threatened serious results. While descending a long hill the brake of the carriage gave way, and the horses started on a full gallop; they were quite out of the control of the driver, and the two footmen were left a long way behind. The driver managed to turn his team into a side road at the risk of an overturn, and gave them a little practice in running up hill instead of down. Gradually they reduced their pace, and some workmen in a field close at hand came to his assistance, and held the horses till the grooms could come up. One of the springs of the carriage was broken, in the severe shaking they had received, but otherwise the vehicle was not much injured.
It was necessary to stop a day at Bandong to have the carriage repaired, and the delay enabled the boys to learn something more about the country.
VOLCANO IN EASTERN JAVA.
They ascertained that, if they had the time to spare, they could go to the eastern capitals of Java along good roads, and through a succession of mountains and plains. They would see volcanoes, both active and silent, and might possibly have a practical acquaintance with an earthquake, or an eruption of one of the burning mountains. Frank was a little doubtful of the safety of such a journey when he learned that one volcano had thrown out, in a single night, ashes and scoriæ to the depth of fifty feet over an area of several miles, destroying forty villages and three thousand people; and another volcano had overwhelmed everything within twenty miles of it, and caused the deaths of twenty thousand persons. But the Doctor assured him that the eruption of a volcano was not so sudden that those who wished to get away could not do so, and the majority of the burning mountains of the world were accustomed to give warning weeks and sometimes months ahead.
RUINS NEAR SOURABAYA.
The eastern capitals of Java are Samarang and Sourabaya, but they are capitals only of the provinces of the same names. Both of them are important commercial points; and there is a railway from Samarang which is intended in course of time to unite with the one from Batavia. Samarang is about two hundred and fifty miles from Batavia, or nearly half-way from one end of the island to the other; while Sourabaya is close to the eastern extremity, and not far from the island of Madura. The country around Sourabaya is quite flat, and very fertile; and the roads sometimes run for miles in perfectly straight lines. Back towards the interior, when the hilly region is reached, there is a magnificent forest, where tigers abound; and the hunter is rewarded by frequent shots at the beautiful Java peacock. The country is full of ruins of temples and palaces; and there are many evidences that it was once occupied by a people greatly advanced in architecture and the fine arts.
"But what should we find if we went beyond Java?" Fred asked.
Just as he spoke the door opened, and a gentleman entered. He proved to be their host of the coffee plantation, who had heard of their accident, and called to congratulate them on their escape from injury. After an exchange of civilities, he seated himself, and asked if he could be of any service; and, turning to Fred, he said,
"I heard your question as I entered the room, and think I can answer it. I have made the journey around the Dutch possessions in the East, and will try to tell you about them."
Both the boys expressed their delight at the chance of learning something of the islands of the Oriental Seas. The gentleman said he had an hour to spare, and would endeavor to enable them to pass it agreeably; and if they wanted to take any notes of what he said, they were welcome to do so.
They were desirous and ready, and he began at once.
"I have twice made the journey," said he; "once by steamer, and once by native boats."
"Do the steamers run there regularly?" one of the boys inquired.
"Certainly," was the reply; "the company whose ship brought you from Singapore to Batavia sends a steamer every month to make the tour of the Dutch East Indies. It leaves Batavia on the 15th of the month, and Sourabaya on the 22d; and goes to Macassar, Menado, Ternate, Boeroe, Amboina, Banda, and Timor, and then returns to Sourabaya and Batavia. The voyage takes about a month, and the steamer remains in each port from twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
"What a delightful voyage it must be," said Frank; "and how much does it cost?"
AN ISLAND PORT.
"A ticket for the round trip," the gentleman replied, "costs three hundred dollars, and sometimes more. You have already found that steamship fares in the East are dear; and this line forms no exception to the rule. In return for your money you have all the comforts the ship can give; and you may live on board all the time she remains in port at the different stopping-places.
"If you go by a native boat you will be much longer on the way; but you can visit more places than the steamer stops at, and can see more of the life of the East. We will drop that part of the subject, and consider what you might see in some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, supposing you should go there; we haven't time for all of them.
"The colonial possessions of the Dutch in the Archipelago comprise about six hundred thousand square miles, with a population of twenty-five millions. They include the whole of Java and Madura, the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and large portions of Borneo and Sumatra. Consequently, you can make a long journey without once going out of the Dutch territory."
WILD FIG-TREE.
"The first place I visited, after leaving Sourabaya, was the island of Lombock. There is not much of interest in the principal port, which is called Ampanam, as the place is small, and the inhabitants are not particularly enterprising. There are some groves of wild fig-trees close to the town; and one of my amusements was to shoot the green pigeons and orioles that abounded there. Some of the trees are almost covered with the hanging-nests of the orioles; and, as they are rarely disturbed by the natives, I found them so tame that it required no skill at all to get near enough to shoot them.
A VILLAGE IN LOMBOCK.
"Several miles out in the country from Ampanam is the village where the Rajah of the island lives; it is called Mataram, and no native of the lower classes is allowed to ride on horseback through it. If you should happen to be travelling there, and had your Javanese servant mounted on a horse, he would be obliged to walk from one end of the town to the other, and lead his animal.
VIEW NEAR MATARAM.
"There is a fine volcano in Lombock, about eight thousand feet high. Mr. Wallace tells a good story in connection with this volcano, and the plan by which the Rajah took the census of the population of the island.
"You must know that the principal product of Lombock is rice, and the taxes are paid in this article. Each man, woman, and child contributed a small measure of rice once a year; but it passed through many hands before it reached the treasury, and a little of it clung to each hand that it touched. The result was that the Rajah did not get half of what was due him, and all his officers conspired to tell him that the crops were short in some districts, and many people had died in others; and no matter what he did to find out the truth, they managed to prevent his learning it. He determined to take a census of his people, but did not knowhow to go at it, as his officers would suspect what it was for, and would make out the population according to the rice that he received the previous year. He thought a long time over the matter, and finally hit on a plan so shrewd that nobody suspected there was any census at all.
"For several days he appeared to be very sick at heart; and finally he called his officers together, and told them he had been summoned to go to the top of the great fire-mountain to hear a revelation from the spirit who ruled the island. The spirit had come to him in a vision, and said he must go there at once, or the island would be destroyed.
WHERE THE GREAT SPIRIT AND THE RAJAH MET.
"Of course they made arrangements immediately, and a grand procession accompanied the Rajah to the designated spot. From the foot of the mountain to the summit he was escorted by a few priests and attendants; and as he neared the crater he ordered them to remain behind, under the shadow of a great rock, while he went alone to meet the spirit. He remained away for a long time; the fact is, he lay down and took a comfortable nap, and it was naturally thought that the spirit had a great deal to say to him.
"When he returned he was silent and sorrowful, and did not speak a word for three days. Then he summoned his officers, and told them whatthe spirit had said. He described the spirit as having a face of burnished gold, and a voice that sounded like distant thunder.
"'Oh, Rajah!' the spirit said, 'much plague, and sickness, and fever are coming on the earth—on men, and horses, and cattle; but as you and your people have obeyed me and come to the mountain, and have been good and faithful, I will tell you how you can avoid the pestilence.
"'You must make twelve sacred krisses; and to make them, every village and every district must send a bundle of needles—a needle for every head in the village. And when any disease appears in a village, one of the krisses shall be sent there; if every house in that village has sent the right number of needles, the disease shall cease immediately; but if the number of needles has not been exact, then all shall die!'
"So the princes and chiefs made haste to collect the needles; and they were very exact about it, for they feared that, if a single needle should be wanting in any case, the whole village would perish. When the needles were collected, the Rajah received them; then he had a workman come and make twelve krisses from those needles; but the papers that were around the needles, and told the name of each village, and the number of men, women, and children in it, he carefully preserved, and put away in his private chest.
"When the rice-tax came in that year, and the quantity fell short, the Rajah said to the officers that there was some mistake about it. He then told them the exact number of inhabitants in that village, according to the packages of needles, and it did not take long to set the matter right. The result was that the Rajah grew very rich, and his fame went out through all the islands and countries of the East."
"A capital story," said Frank; and the opinion was emphatically endorsed by Fred.
"It is evident," the latter remarked, "that the kriss, or dagger, is held in great respect in Lombock."
"Certainly," said the gentleman, in reply; "there is no part of the Archipelago where it is more honored, and where the wealthy natives have so much money invested in this weapon. Very often they have them with golden handles set with jewels; and I have seen some that cost thousands of dollars. Every man carries one of these knives, and frequently it is the only property he can boast of possessing. The blade is twisted; and when it is used it makes a frightful wound."
"That is what the Malays 'run a-muck' with, is it not?" Frank asked.
"Yes; and Lombock is one of the most famous places in the East for that amusement. The island, though close to Java, is independent, and the Rajah does pretty much what he pleases as long as he remains on good terms with his Dutch neighbors. The taxes are not heavy, but the laws are very severe. Small thefts are punished with death; and it is a rule of the country that a person found in a house after dark, without the owner's consent, may be killed, and his body thrown into the street, without fear that anybody will ask a question about the matter.
"The word 'amok' means 'kill;' and the Malays kill others in the expectation that others will kill them. Running amok is the fashionable way of committing suicide; a man grows desperate from any cause, and determines to put an end to his life, and to kill as many others as he can before he is killed himself. He grasps his kriss handle, and stabs somebody to the heart; then he rushes down the street, shouting 'amok! amok!' and stabbing everybody he can reach. People rush on him with knives, spears, daggers, guns, or other weapons, and despatch him as soon as possible—as they would a mad dog. Sometimes five or ten persons are killed by the man before he is brought down; and I know one instance where sixteen were killed or wounded by a native running amok.
"The Malays are excellent workers of steel, and the weapons they make are difficult to surpass in fineness and beauty. The marvellous thing is that they will accomplish so much with the rudest implements;a smith has a small forge, a hammer or two, and a few files, and with these and one or two other things he will turn out work that astonishes the skilled artificers of Sheffield. A Malay gunsmith produces weapons that shoot with precision, and are bored with perfect accuracy; but the boring is done without any machinery whatever. This is the apparatus:
GUN-BORING IN LOMBOCK.
"There is an upright pole which is thrust through a bamboo basket; its top is fastened to a cross-bar, and the bottom is equipped with an iron ring in which boring-irons can be fitted. The barrel to be bored is set in the ground, the basket is filled with stones to give it weight, and two boys turn the cross-bar to make the boring-iron revolve. The barrel is bored in sections about eighteen inches long; and these are welded together, and afterwards bored to the required size.
NATIVES OF TIMOR.
"Considerably to the eastward of Lombock is the island of Timor, which is interesting because it is one of the few places where the Portuguese have a local habitation and a name in the Malay Archipelago. Timor is about three hundred miles long by sixty wide, and is partly occupied by the Dutch and partly by the Portuguese. The Dutch settlements are at the western end, and their principal town is Coupang; it has a mixed population of Malays, Chinese, and Dutch, in addition to the natives, who are closely allied to the natives of Papua, or New Guinea, and have very little affinity with the Malay race. They are of a dirty brown color, and have large noses and frizzled hair, so that they strongly resemble the negro.
DELLI, PORTUGUESE TIMOR.
"The seat of the Portuguese part of Timor is at Delli, a miserable village of thatched huts, with a mud fort, and very little appearance of civilization. The governor's house is a trifle better than the rest, butnot much; and the place has a reputation for fever that is not at all agreeable for a stranger. I don't think much of Delli, and never heard of any one who did.
"The Portuguese government in Timor is a very shadowy affair, and the sooner it comes to an end the better. It has been there three hundred years, and yet there is not a mile of road in the interior of the country, and the agricultural resources of the island have received no development. The example of the Dutch in Java seems to be quite lost on the Portuguese, who oppress the inhabitants in every possible way, and plunder them without fear of punishment."
Frank asked if Timor was one of the islands where the bird of paradise is found.
"No," replied the gentleman; "but it is not far from there to the Aru Islands, where the Great Bird of Paradise lives. I went from Timorto Aru in a native boat, and narrowly escaped drowning on the way. We were caught in a storm, and anchored near a small island off the coast of Aru; the Malay anchor is a stick of wood from the fork of a tree, with a stone to give it weight, and, as it has only one fluke, you can never be sure that it goes down so as to seize the bottom. Ours bothered us so that we had to throw it several times, and when we finally got it to hold we were not twenty yards from the rocks where the wind was driving us.
"But a miss is as good as a mile, and we were safe on shore the next morning, very thankful at our escape.
"I had an opportunity to go to the forest to see the process of shooting the Great Bird of Paradise, and went at once. Quite a trade is carried on in these birds, and the skill of the natives is devoted to capturing them without staining their plumage with blood, or allowing the birds to injure it during their struggles.
"The birds have a curious habit of getting up dancing-parties in the month of May, when their plumage is finest. They assemble before sunrise in a tree that has plenty of room among its branches for them to move about, and as soon as the sun is fairly up they begin their dancing. They elevate their plumes as peacocks display their tails, stretch their necks, raise their wings, and hop from branch to branch in a state of great excitement.
NATIVES OF ARU SHOOTING THE GREAT BIRD OF PARADISE.
"The natives hunt through the forest till they find a tree where the birds assemble. They go there in the evening and build a screen of leaves over the fork of the tree, and just before daylight they climb up there ready for business. They keep perfectly still till the birds are busily engaged in their dance, and then they shoot with blunt-pointed arrows. The bird is stunned and falls to the ground, and before he recovershe is seized by a boy who is waiting for him; the bird's neck is broken without injuring the skin, and thus the prize is secured without staining the feathers with blood."
Fred asked if, when one bird was shot, the rest did not fly away.
"Not by any means," was the answer. "They are so busy with displaying their feathers to each other, that they do not take notice of the disappearance of one of their number until they are greatly reduced. The morning I went out to see the business, I was stationed in a little bower about a hundred yards from the tree where the birds were, so that I could see all that went on. There were twenty-one birds there, all beautiful males, and they made the prettiest sight of the kind that ever came before my eyes. The natives shot fifteen of them, and finally one of the birds was not hit hard enough to prevent his screaming as he fell. The others then took the alarm, and in two minutes they were all out of sight."
A NATIVE ANCHOR.
"There is an interesting point in the Aru Islands," the gentleman remarked, after a short pause, "known as Dobbo."
GREAT STREET OF DOBBO IN THE TRADING SEASON.
"It is not regularly visited by steamers, as it is out of the routes of travel, and for a part of the year it is almost deserted. In May and June it is filled to overflowing with a mixed lot of people from all parts of the East. There are Chinese in considerable number, who come to buy the articles brought to market by the inhabitants of the islands for a long distance; and there are men from Macassar, Timor, Ceram, and other parts of the Archipelago, as well as the natives of Aru, who belong to the Papuans I have already described. The town consists of a single street of mat-covered huts and sheds, with a lot of straggling buildings in the rear that are set down without any regard to order or regularity.
"I went to Dobbo in a native boat from Macassar. It was very much like a Chinese junk in general appearance, and about seventy tons burden, with a native crew of thirty men and a Javanese captain. Four or five of the men were slave-debtors of the captain, and the rest were hired, like the crew of a ship in Europe or America."
"Excuse me for interrupting," said Fred, "but let me ask what these slave-debtors are."
"Slave indebtedness," replied the gentleman, "is a system introduced by the Dutch, who borrowed it from the Chinese, for the protection of traders in these thinly-peopled regions. Goods must be intrusted to agents and small dealers, who frequently gamble them away, and leave the merchant unpaid. He trusts them again and again, with the same result; and finally, when he can stand it no longer, he brings them before a police court, where he establishes his claim. The magistrate then binds the debtor over to the creditor, and requires him to work out the account. The plan seems to answer very well, as the creditor is secure so long as the debtor lives and has his health; while the debtor does not consider himself disgraced, but rather enjoys his relief from responsibility."
"But it is a system of slavery," Fred answered; "though, after all, it is more sensible than the European practice of locking a debtor up in jail, where he can earn nothing, but is a constant expense to himself and all others concerned."
"A good deal depends on the character of the master," was the reply. "Some masters get along very pleasantly with their debtors—allow them to trade a little on their own account—and associate with them on equal terms.
WEARING THE CANGUE.
"Others treat them harshly—perhaps not without cause—sometimes, and punish them severely for disobedience. While I was at Dobbo, a Chinese merchant fastened one of his slave-debtors in a cangue, and kept him there an entire day, chained to the wall of his shop. The man had been caught stealing from his master, and the latter made himself judge, jury, and police-officer without delay. The cangue is a wooden collar around the neck; it is about three feet square, and made of planks from one to two inches thick. It is a heavy article of wearing apparel, and not at all ornamental."
Frank asked if the native captains understood navigation after the European form, and could take the positions of the sun and moon with instruments like those used on American or European ships.
"They are not good navigators," responded their informant, "as we understand navigation, but they manage to get along wonderfully well with very rude appliances. They take the altitude of the sun with a stick, to which is attached a string with a peculiar arrangement of knots; and they understand the use of the compass. They have a water-clock, which is very simple, and much more accurate than you would suppose.
"It consists of a bucket of water, and the half of a cocoa-nut shell. There is a tiny hole like the prick of a needle in the bottom of the shell, and when you put it on the water you can just see a stream like a thread spurting up. It takes an hour to fill the shell, and when it is full it goes plump to the bottom of the bucket, making a bubbling noise that attractsthe attention of the man on duty, who immediately puts the shell in place again. I used to try it with my watch, and found that it never varied more than a minute from the hour, which is quite accurate enough for an Oriental. The motion of the boat had no effect on it, as the water in the bucket was always on a level.
"The voyages of these boats are made with the monsoons, so that the course is largely guided by studying the direction of the wind. Only one voyage can be made in a year from Macassar—the boats starting in December or January with the west monsoon, and returning in July or August with the east monsoon. The distance is about a thousand miles, and is made in from twenty to thirty days each way.
A NATIVE OF ARU.
"The trade at Dobbo amounts to something near a hundred thousand dollars a year, and is carried on in the most primitive way. It is almost entirely a barter trade; there is no money in use except copper coins from Java and China, and many of the natives do not even know their value. It requires a great deal of talk to make a bargain, and sometimes they will haggle for hours over a transaction that amounts to only a few cents.
SEA-CUCUMBER.
"The things brought from the islands, and bought by the traders, are pearl-shells, tortoise-shell, edible birds'-nests, pearls, timber, and birds of paradise. There is also a large supply oftripang, or 'beche-de-mer,' of which the Chinese make many soups. It is known in English as the sea-cucumber, and is taken on the reefs and among the rocks all through the Eastern seas, and in some parts of the Pacific Ocean. After being boiled in its own liquid, and dried on racks over a fire, it is ready for market.
A PAPUAN PIPE.
"The goods used in purchasing these articles are as varied as the purchasers. The most important item is that of arrack—a spirit distilled from rice, and resembling rum; about twenty thousand gallons of it are sold at Dobbo every year, and sometimes as many as twenty-five thousand. Englishand American cottons are sold; and also tobacco, crockery, knives, muskets, gunpowder, Chinese gongs, small cannons, and elephants' tusks. The last three articles are the luxuries with which the natives of Aru buy their wives, and display in their houses or conceal as valuable property. They use tobacco both for chewing and smoking, and will not accept it unless it is very strong. The native pipe is similar to that used in Papua, or New Guinea, and is made of wood, with a long upright handle, which is set in the ground while the owner is using it. He squats before the pipe, and when in this position his mouth is just on a level with the end of the stem.
"I went from Dobbo to Amboyna and Banda, which are small islands not far from the much greater one of Ceram. They formerly belonged to the Portuguese, but are now in possession of the Dutch, and known to the commercial world for their products of cloves and nutmegs."
"I have read somewhere," said Frank, "that the Dutch destroyed the spice-trees on all the other islands, so as to have a monopoly in Banda and Amboyna. Was it not very unjust to the natives to do that?"
"All the facts in the case are not generally known," was the reply. "The Portuguese traders maintained high prices for these luxuries, and used to oppress the natives to obtain them. Sometimes the competition led to their paying such figures to the native princes that the latter became very wealthy, but their subjects were not benefited by them. When the Dutch came into possession,they determined to concentrate the culture in a few places, so that they could control it, and to this end they offered an annual subsidy to the native princes to destroy the spice-trees in their dominions. The latter were thus made sure of their revenue, while the people were able to devote more time to the cultivation of articles of food, and were relieved from taxes.
"The cultivation of the clove was restricted to the island of Amboyna, while Banda was made the seat of the nutmeg culture. There was so much complaint on the part of the English that the monopoly was finally removed in part; the trade is still surrounded with restrictions, as the Dutch are in possession of the islands where the culture can be conducted to the best advantage. It is a curious circumstance that the birds had much to do with the suppression of the monopoly."
"The birds?"
A BIRD OF AMBOYNA.
"Yes, a bird known as the nutmeg-pigeon. He lives on the mace which envelops the nutmeg; the latter is undigested and uninjured in his stomach, and he carries it to islands of whose existence the Dutch were not aware. The nutmeg is the seed of the tree, and as fast as the Dutch suppressed the cultivation in an island the birds restored it. Banda is still the centre of the nutmeg trade, as the article is produced more cheaply there than in any other spot, and it sends about two million pounds of this spice to market every year. The climate of Amboyna was found not altogether suited to the production of the clove; and as the clove-tree flourishes in other parts of the world, the monopoly could not be kept up. The clove is not thefruit of the tree, as many persons suppose, but the blossom; it is gathered before it is unfolded, and if you look at a clove you will see how much it resembles a bud just ready for opening.
"From Banda I went to Ceram, to see the process of obtaining sago. Perhaps you are fond of sago-pudding, and may be interested to know where sago comes from, and how it is prepared."
The boys nodded their assent, and Frank remarked that he had many times wished he knew more about the delicious article.
"The sago-tree belongs to the palm family; it is thicker and larger than the cocoa-palm, but not so tall, and its leaves are very large and long. The stem of the leaf is twelve or fifteen feet long, and six inches in diameter at the butt, and is used for a great many purposes. Whole houses are built of these stems, from the framework to the thatch-poles and flooring, and they never shrink or bend, or require any paint or varnish. The leaf forms an admirable thatch, and the trunk of the tree is the food of many thousands of people.
SAGO CLUB.
"When it is about fifteen years old the tree blossoms, and then dies. Just as it is about to blossom, it is cut down close to the ground, and stripped of its leaves. The upper part of the trunk is then taken off, so as to expose the pith of the tree, which is broken into a coarse powder by means of a club of heavy wood, having a piece of iron or sharp stone in one end. The whole inside of the tree is broken up till the trunk forms a trough not more than half an inch thick.