the same rate. The turmeric of Java is of high
estimation in the markets of Europe, ranking next
to that of China, and being much superior to that
of Bengal. The principal value of the clove bark,
as an article of exportation, is for its oil, which
differs little from that of the clove itself. Cayu-
puti oil, the essential oil of a species of myrtle,
growing in the country of spices, has become of
late years a favourite medicine as an external application.
It has been sold on the spot for the
high price of five Spanish dollars the quart; but
this is not the natural cost of the commodity, and
is caused only by the difficult intercourse of the
trading world with the countries which produce it.
* Betel-nut, or areca, gambir, and tobacco, are articles
of extensive traffic. All the countries of the
Archipelago respectively produce enough of areca
for their own domestic consumption, but it is only
the western countries, and especially the west
coast of Sumatra, where Pedir is the most remarkable
place, that the areca is in such abundance
as to be an article of foreign exportation. The
areca of commerce is of two kinds; that which is
dried carefully without being split, and that which
is split and more hastily dried. The first is the
most valuable, and its common price at Pedir,
which produces for exportation about 40,000 piculs
annually, is from § to 1 | of a Spanish dollar
per picul. At this price it is purchased by the
European traders of Penang, who dispose of it from
their warehouses at an advance of from 100 to
200 per cent. It is principally carried to China
and Bengal, bringing, in the market of Canton, an
average price of 8=^0 Spanish dollars per picul j
and: in that of Calcutta 4 ~ Spanish dollars, an
advance on the prime cost in the one of 50 per
cent., and in the other of 70 per cent. An
article so cheap, and so little perishable, might,
perhaps, be imported into Europe, and used with
advantage in the dyeing of our cotton goods,
a purpose to which it is converted in Coromandel
and Malabar. The betel-nut of the Indian islands
is grown cheaper than that of Malabar by no
less than 66| per cent., or is no more than onethird
of its price.
Gambir, or Terra Japónica, as mentioned in
the account given of its agriculture, is the production
of the western portions of the Archipelago,
from whence it is a great article of exportation to
the ea stern , and especially to Java. It is also sent
to China. The price of the commodity to the
traders, who export it from the places of its growth,
is from three to four Spanish dollars per picul. It
usually sells in Java at six, and when the market is
understocked, often as high as eight Spanish dollars.
Such fluctuations of price we must reckon to meet
with in countries between which the communication
is still uncertain, because unskilfully conducted,