TANAHKEKE. The name of an islet in South latitude 5° 30", lying towards the
extreme end of the coast of the south-western peninsula of Celebes. The mm.
partly Malayan and partly Macassar, signifies “ land of sorcerers.”
TANGAMUS (GTTNUNG). The name of a mountain of Sumatra, in the country
ot the Lampung nation, which has an elevation of 7500 feet above the level of the
sea, but of which the geological character has not been ascertained.
TANGKUBAN-PRAU is the name of a mountain of Java, in the country of the
bundas, and district of Bandong. It is an active volcano 6500 feet high, with three
separate craters, called, respectively, Kawah-ratu, Kawah-badak, and Kawah-upas, signifying
respectively, kings, rhinoceros, and poison caldrons. An eruption of this
mountain took place in 1829, and another as late as 1846. These have been accurately
and scientifically described by Dutch writers.
TAN JUNG. In Malay, hut not in Javanese, a headland, point, cape, or promontory,—
any land, whether high or low, projecting into the sea, or a river. The word
is of very frequent occurrence in the geography of Malayan countries, and examples
are abundant, as Tanjung-datu, Tanjung-api, and Tanjung-sMatan, literally, “ elders,”
fire, and south-pomts,—names of Bornean headlands.
TAPANULY. The name of the only extensive hay in the island of Sumatra, and
situated on its western coast, in the country, of the Bataks. I t c'ontains many islands,
and within it are several well-sheltered coves and harbours, with ample depth of
water for ships of burden. One of the islands towards its entrance, called Ponchong-
1 o , Pon(ihong, was one occupied by the English, and is in north latitude
1 43 50 , and east longitude 98° 45'. This spacious bay, however, has never been a
scene of industry, or much frequented, for the inhabitants on its coasts, few in
^number, are barbarous, and the country itself, with few exceptions, a mere forest.
Tllis is tlle name of a Bugis country, situated nearly in the centre
of the south-western peninsula of Celebes, but the name is also frequently applied to
its most remarkable feature, the T¶ng-danau, or lake of T^parang, called, also, the
i l l - ? w According to the accounts given to me by intelligent merchants,
inhabitants of its shores, this lake, by far the largest in Celebes, is twenty-four miles
in length, from north to south, and about half this breadth. It is fed by many
streams, at the disemboguement of each of which there is usually a village. Its
superfluous water is carried off by the river Chinrana, which falls into the bay of
Bom m about south latitude 4° 15'. The Chinrana is navigable up to the lake for
vessels of twenty tons burthen, and the lake itself is also navigable, having a depth of
from two to three fathoms in the dry season, and in the wet as much as eight. It
abounds in fish, and its shores are populous and well cultivated.
(T-^BIRUS MALAYENSIS), in Malay, Tanok. The tapir was thought
to be exclusively a native of the New World, until it was found, also,- to belong to the
old one, and, strange to say, not until the beginning of the present century. It had
been seen m Sumatra as early as 1772, but thought to he a hippopotamus. In 1803,
a specimen was obtained in Penang, from the opposite side of the Peninsula, but it
excited no attention, and the first account of it was rendered, in 1816, by my friend
the late Colonel Farquar. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English had been,
therefore, one or other of them,-in Sumatra and the Peninsula, the only countries of
the Archipelago in which the tapir exists, for three centuries without discovering that
they produced one of the larger mammalia, the animal being all the while well known
to the natives, and having a specific name.
TARAKAN. The name of one of the many islands in the bay which is included
between Cape Unsang and Cape Jarum, on the eastern side of Borneo.
TASMAN (ABEL). This great and enterprising Dutch navigator and discoverer
is noticed here on account of his having sailed from Java under the auspices of its
Governor-General Van Diemen. His two voyages were performed in 1642 and 1644
j 9 “ eso Tasman’s principal discoveries were Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand’,
and the Friendly Islands. The first of these, in honour of him, has lately received,
and it is hoped will retain, the name of Tasmania. Even the dates of the birth and
death of this man, who equalled Dampier and Cook, and whose discoveries preceded
those of the first by 50 years, and of the last by 130, are unknown.
TATTOOING. The practice of making indelible stained figures in the skin, by
way of ornament or distinction, is called, in Malay, chachah, a word which also signifies
to chop, or mince. I t obtains only among the rudest tribes, such as some of the
Dayaks of Borneo, but is unknown to all the more civilised races, nor is it ascertained
to have existed among the latter in any period of their history. It appears to have
been general among one far-spread nation of the Philippines at the time _ of the
Spanish conquest. These are the Bisaya, whose name, signifying “ to paint,” is
said to be derived from this custom.
TAWALI is the name of a small island lying close to the north-western coast of
Bachian the largest of the five true Molucca or Clove Islands. Its most southerly
point is thirty-three miles south of the equator, and in east longitude 127° 9' 30".
TAWT-TAWT. This is one of the three most considerable islands of the Sulu-
Archipelago, and the largest, although not the most fruitful of them. Its area is 416
square geographical miles. Of the large islands of the Archipelago, it is the nearest
to Borneo, being distant from the Point of Unsang not above twenty miles. Its
inhabitants belong to the same Malayan race as those of the chief island, Soolo,
speak the same language, and have, as rovers, the same evil reputation as the
people of that island.
TAYABA8. The name of one of the provinces of the island of Luzon, bounded to
the north by the great lake and province of Bay,—to the east by the Gulf of
Lamon, and to the west by the province of Batangas. To the south, it is composed of
the narrow isthmus which makes Luzon to consist of two peninsulas. The general
character of the province is rugged and mountainous, yet it contains several plains
and rich valleys, well adapted to the culture of rice, or which contain good pastures,
in which are bred horned cattle and horses, the last of high reputation in other parts
of the Philippines. The inhabitants of Tayabas are of the Tagala nation. In 1735,
the population was only 10,000. In the first year of the present century, it was
39,690; in 1818, it rose to 48,676, and in 1845, to 80,110, of whom 17,347 paid the
capitation tax.
The chief town of the province bearing the same name stands in north latitude
13° 37' 30", and east longitude 121° 30', in a plain, and on a small river near its disemboguement,
opposite to the island of Marinduque. It consists of 1800 houses, and
a population of 22,265 souls, of whom 4712 were subject to the poll-tax. Taking the
area of the province at 1575 geographical square leagues, the rate of population is
50*8 to the square mile.
TEA. The Chinese name for tea, adopted by the Indian Islands, is tbe same as
our own, teh, and as we received our earliest supply from Bantam, it is probable that
the English name comes directly from the Malay. This commodity must have
been introduced into the Indian Islands with the first commercial intercourse of the
Chinese with them, but, most probably, at first in very small quantities, and for the
use only of the Chinese sojourners themselves. It is certainly not mentioned as an
article of trade by the early Portuguese writers. Thus, Barbosa gives a list of seventeen
different articles imported by the Chinese into Malacca, such as porcelain, raw
and wrought silks, iron, silver, musk, rhubarb, but there is not a word about tea. I t
was not until 1600, or ninety years after the arrival of the Portuguese, that tea was
first seen by them in the market of Malacca, and the first sample was imported into
England, not until 1662, a century and a half after the conquest of that place. The
upper class of the Javanese drink tea occasionally, although they have no taste for
coffee, now so cheaply produced in their own country.
Of late years, among other factitious projects for increasing the wealth of Java, the
Dutch have introduced the cultivation and preparation of tea, by corvée labour. All
the chances are, I think, against the ultimate success of such a scheme, and this for
reasons which are transparent. No good tea has been produced hitherto in any
country within the tropics—not even in China itself, where all the requisite knowledge,
skill, and low-priced labour exist, and it is not probable, therefore, that it
should be produced within seven degrees of the equator, where equal knowledge,
skill, or cheap labour do not exist. It may be pleaded that elevation above the level
of the sea will furnish the requisite average temperature. No doubt it will do so in a
great many parts of Java, but it cannot, there or anywhere else, supply the summer
and the winter that may be necessary to the successful growth of tea. A moderate
elevation furnishes the necessary climate for coffee, which, although a native of
Abyssinia, is successfully grown at the equator. A long experience has proved that
coffee may be grown in any tolerable soil in any country within the tropics, but it
cannot be inferred from this that tea, a plant of a different natural family, can be so.
On the contrary, we have known tea nearly as long as coffee, and after the lapse of