tch, on the land side, with its extremities embracing the
port, and strengthened by bulwarks of timber. With provisions they were
supplied in abundance, particularly the finest fish. There is no wheat,
and the people live on rice. They are without vines, but extract an
excellent liquor from trees of the palm kind by cutting off a branch and
applying to it a vessel which is filled in the course of a day and night.
A description is then given of the Indian or coconut. Dragoian, a name
bearing some though not much resemblance to Indragiri on the eastern
coast; but I doubt his having proceeded so far to the southward as that
river. The customs of the natives are painted as still more atrocious in
this district. When any of them are afflicted with disorders pronounced
by their magicians to be incurable their relations cause them to be
suffocated, and then dress and eat their flesh; justifying the practice
by this argument, that if it were suffered to corrupt and breed worms,
these must presently perish, and by their deaths subject the soul of the
deceased to great torments. They also kill and devour such strangers
caught amongst them as cannot pay a ransom. Lambri might be presumed a
corruption of Jambi, but the circumstances related do not justify the
analogy. It is said to produce camphor, which is not found to the
southward of the equinoctial line; and also verzino, or red-wood (though
I suspect benzuin to be the word intended), together with a plant which
he names birci, supposed to be the bakam of the Arabs, or sappan wood of
the eastern islands, the seeds of which he carried with him to Venice. In
the mountainous parts were men with tails a palm long; also the
rhinoceros, and other wild animals. Lastly, Fanfur or Fansur, which
corresponds better to Campar than to the island of Panchur, which some
have supposed it. Here the finest camphor was produced, equal in value to
its weight in gold. The inhabitants live on rice and draw liquor from
certain trees in the manner before described. There are likewise trees
that yield a species of meal. They are of a large size, have a thin bark,
under which is a hard wood about three inches in thickness, and within
this the pith, from which, by means of steeping and straining it, the
meal (or sago) is procured, of which he had often eaten with
satisfaction. Each of these kingdoms is said to have had its peculiar
language. Departing from Lambri, and steering northward from Java minor
one