S a g o T r e e .
ference, o f great ftrength, faced with precipices ; flat at top, containing
many'houfes and gardens, and inacceflible unlefs by
ladders.
T h i s ifland abounds with oxen, buffaloes, goats, deer, and
wild hogs, but fcarcely any Iheep.
T h é natives have a turn to manufactures, but it is checked
by the Dutch.-, notwithftanding this-, they import a great deal of
cotton yarn from Balli, and the Bug g e/s country, which they
fabricatè into cloth.
In Gilolo, in all the Moluccas, and other iflands o f that diftrict,
and even in New Guinea, grows the Rima or Bread Fruit. I
have before mentioned that.uleful tree, the Cycas circinalis,
Sago or Libby tree, which appears firft in Siam, grows in Sumatra,
Borneo, Johor, Java, and Mindanao, is continued through all the
iflands, and becomes in thefe countries a vegetable of the firft
importance, for the fubfiftence o f the inhabitants. It is as wheat
to the Europeans, mayz to the Americans, dates to the Arabs,
and rice to the Hindoos, ■ The ufe o f rice, the great food o f India,
ceafes; either the ground.is unfit for the cultivation, or the
natives are too lazy to fow it, when nature offers them a more
ready food. The fago trees grow in great numbers in every one
o f thefe iflaiids. It fometimes attains the height o f thirty feet,
and the branches extend twenty ; the circumference of the item
is às much as a man can embrace ; the head fpreads into leaves
like a palm, to which genus it bears a great refemblancè ; but
Limmus choofes to fling it among the ferns, Rumphius (who
is very diffufe in his account o f it) places it among the palms, under
the name o f Sagu, and Palma farinaria * ; Mr. Forrejl gives
* -RumphiuSj i. 72 to 83. tab. 17.
the
the beft account of this moft neceffary article: I ihall therefore,
borrow from him what is to be faid on the fubjedt.
a T h e fago or libby tree, has, like the cocoa-nut tree, no dif-
“ tin£t bark that peels off, and may be defined a long tube of
“ hard wood, about two inches thick, containing a pulp or pith,
a mixed with many longitudinal fibres. The tree being felled,
<l it is cut into lengths o f about five or fix feet; a part o f the
“ hard wood is then iliced oft; and the workman coming to the
“ pith, cuts acrofs (generally with an adze made o f hard wood
ci called a neebong) the longitudinal fibres, and the pith to-
“ pether, leaving a part at each end uncut, Jo that, when it is
“ excavated, there remains a trough, into which the pulp is again
“ put, mixed with water, and beat with a piece o f wood ; then
« the fibres, feparated from the pulp, float at top, and the flour
ft fubfides. After being cleared in this manner by feveral
a -waters, the pulp is put into cylindrical bafkets, made of the
“ leaves o f the tree; and if it is to be kept fome time, thofe
« bafkets are generally funk in freih water.
“ O n e tree \\bll produce from two to four hundred weight
“ o f flour; no wonder then i f agriculture be negledted, in a
« country, where the labour of- five men, in felling fago trees,
“ beating the flour, and inftantly baking the bread, will main-
« tain a hundred. I have often found large.fpecies o f the fago
“ tree on the fea-ihore, drifts from other countries. The fago,
“ thus fteeped in the fait water, had always a four difagreeable
fmell; and in this ftate, I dare fay the wild hogs would not
“ tafte it. The leaf of the fago tree makes the beft covering
« for houfes of all the palm kind ; it will laft feven years.
C c a “ Coverings