tives, is 411 cents of a Spanish dollar, per 100 lbs.
avoirdupois, and common day labour is rewarded at
the rate of two dollars a month. The best working
buffaloes, the strongest and finest cattle of the
country, cost no more than ten Spanish dollars a
pair. The profits which would accrue to the
Planter from combining the manufacture of arrack
are not estimated, for this is injudiciously made an
object of monopoly.
Of the celebrated Batavian arrack, which so
much excels all liquors of the same name, I shall
now give a short account. It is made from a mixture
of molasses, paJm-wine, and rice, in the following
proportions :
Molasses,’ - - o p art,s
loddy, or palm-wine, _ g
Bice, - . S5
100
100 parts of these materials yield parts of distilled
proof arrack.
The process of manufacture is as follows: The
rice I first boiled, and after cooling a quantity of
yest is added to it, and it is pressed into baskets, in
which condition it is placed over a tub, or tubs,
for eight days, during which time a liquor flow^
abundantly from the mixture; At the end of that
time, the liquor so distilled is taken out, and mixed
with the molasses and palm-wine, which had been
previously combined. The mixture remains in a
small vessel for one day only, when it is removed
into large fermenting vats, in which it remains for
seven. When, at the termination of this period,
the process of fermentation is over, the liquor is
finally removed into the stills, and, according to
the number of distillations it undergoes, becomes
arrack of the Jirst, second, or third quality in commerce.
The manufacture of arrack is conducted separately
from that of sugar, the arrack distillers usually
purchasing their molasses from the sugar manufacturers
at the rate of about a dollar and a half
a picul, deliverable at the distillery. The best arrack
is manufactured at the rate of seven Spanish
dollars per picul, or 2-1^- dollars per cubic foot.
It is not very easy to determine with whom originated
the manufacture of this singular spirit. It
is evident enough, from the nature of one of the
materials, the molasses, that it is not a native manufacture.
The name Aralc is Arabic, but among
the natives it is not confined to this particular modification,
but applied generally to every kind of
spirituous liquor.
A valuable and important product of the Indian
islands is Black Pepper, ( Piper nigrum, L. ) Except
the western portion of the peninsula of India,
they are the only countries in the world that yield
this remarkable product. The pepper vine is too