re owes its existence. In the
northern countries of the island, where the people are numerous and their
ports good, they are found to be more independent also, and refuse to
cultivate plantations upon any other terms than those on which they can
deal with private traders.

CULTIVATION OF PEPPER.

In the cultivation of pepper (Piper nigrum, L.)* the first circumstance
that claims attention, and on which the success materially depends, is
the choice of a proper site for the plantation. A preference is usually
given to level ground lying along the banks of rivers or rivulets,
provided they are not so low as to be inundated, both on account of the
vegetable mould commonly found there, and the convenience of
water-carriage for the produce. Declivities, unless very gentle, are to
be avoided, because the soil loosened by culture is liable in such
situations to be washed away by heavy rains. When these plains however
are naked, or covered with long grass only, they will not be found to
answer without the assistance of the plough and of manure, their
fertility being exhausted by exposure to the sun. How far the returns in
general might be increased by the introduction of these improvements in
agriculture I cannot take upon me to determine; but I fear that, from the
natural indolence of the natives, and their want of zeal in the business
of pepper-planting, occasioned by the smallness of the advantage it
yields to them, they will never be prevailed upon to take more pains than
they now do. The planters therefore, depending more upon the natural
qualities of the soil than on any advantage it might receive from their
cultivation, find none to suit their purpose better than those spots
which, having been covered with old woods and long fertilized by decaying
foliage and trunks, have recently been cleared for ladangs or
padi-fields, in the manner already described; where it was also observed
that, being allured by the certainty of abundant produce from a virgin
soil, and having land for the most part at will, they renew their toil
annually, and desert the ground so laboriously prepared after occupying
it for one, or at the furthest for two, seasons. Such are the most usual
situations chosen for the pepper plantations (kabun) or gardens, as they
are termed; but, independently of the culture of rice, land is very
frequently cleared for the pepper in the first instance by felling and
burning the trees.

(*Footnote. See Remarks on the