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Updated: May 27, 2025
A small island to the westward of Savu, the name of which we did not learn, produces nothing of any consequence but areca-nuts, of which the Dutch receive annually the freight of two sloops, in return for presents that they make to the islanders. Timor is the chief, and the Dutch residents on the other islands go thither once a-year to pass their accounts.
I climbed into the branches of one, and drank water from a stream passing near its roots, without suffering the slightest inconvenience; at the same time, perhaps, under some circumstances, it may be more hurtful. The chief articles exported by my captors were bees' wax and camphor, honey, vegetable tallow, areca-nuts, trepang dawma, sharks' fins, tortoise-shell, edible birds' nests, and pearls.
As he expected, after rising a few feet from the ground, his eyes encountered the solemn blue line of the sea, not half a mile distant. He descended and commenced a systematic search. Men had been here. Was there a house? Would he suddenly encounter some hermit Malay or Chinaman? At the foot of the main cliff was a cluster of fruit-bearing trees, plantains, areca-nuts, and cocoa-palms.
The teeth of all natives are highly discolored by the perpetual indulgence in this disgusting habit; nor is this the only effect produced; cancer in the cheek is a common complaint among them, supposed to be produced by the caustic lime which is so continually in the mouth. The exports of areca-nuts from Ceylon will give some idea of the supply of palms.
It is a dark, dismal-looking place, only visited by the savage inhabitants when they come to collect the areca-nuts, and its solitude is undisturbed save by the flapping of the hornbill's wings as he carries food to his imprisoned mate, or the harsh screech of a white cockatoo flying overhead to the mountain forest beyond.
So fully aware are the natives of the impossibility of getting more than one crop out of the land that they plant all that they require at the same time. The principal articles of native cultivation are rice, korrakan, Indian corn, betel, areca-nuts, pumpkins, onions, garlic, gingelly-oil seed, tobacco, millet, red peppers, curry seed and sweet potatoes.
At least half an hour was taken up by this part of the proceedings. The relations at first threw themselves on the ground, and, covering their faces, howled horribly, but finding the burial lasted rather long, sat down in a circle all round, and taking their little baskets of betel, burnt mussel-shells, and areca-nuts, began chewing away with the greatest composure.
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