marking the shady way I had taken from Kema to Me-
nado. This is considered, and I believe rightly, the
finest view in the archipelago, and one of the most
charming in the world, because the other famous
views, like that of Damascus, do not include that
great emblem of infinity, the open ocean.
Rice is raised at even as great an elevation as the
place we had reached, about four thousand five hundred
feet, in what are called hebon laring, “ dry gardens.”
These are known as tegal lands in Java. The
yield is said not to be as large as on the low lands,
sawas, by the margin of the lake which are overflowed
in the usual manner. The yearly crop in the
Minahassa is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
thousand piculs, of which ten to eighteen thousand
are exported chiefly to Ternate and Amboina.
Tobacco is also cultivated, but only for home consumption.
Cocoa is also raised; and this year (1865)
forty-four and three-fourth piculs were exported.
Like that at Amboina, it is all bought by Chinamen,
who send it to Manilla. Cocoa-nuts are also ex-
ported to the chief islands eastward. The yield this
year is estimated by the officials at four million.
There is a great abundance here of the gomuti or
sagaru palm-tree, the large petioles of which spread
out at the base into broad fibrous sheets that enclose
the trunk. Some of the fibres resemble horsehair, but
are much stiffer and very brittle, and are gathered by
the natives and manufactured into coir, a kind of
coarse rope. As the fibres soon break, they project
in every direction until the rope becomes extremely
rough and difficult to handle. It has the valuable