y beautiful,
and rendered more striking by the contrast they exhibit to the wild
scenes of nature which surround them. In highly cultivated countries such
as England, where landed property is all lined out and bounded and
intersected with walls and hedges, we endeavour to give our gardens and
pleasure-grounds the charm of variety and novelty by imitating the
wildness of nature, in studied irregularities. Winding walks, hanging
woods, craggy rocks, falls of water, are all looked upon as improvements;
and the stately avenues, the canals, and rectangular lawns of our
ancestors, which afforded the beauty of contrast in ruder times are now
exploded. This difference of taste is not merely the effect of caprice,
nor entirely of refinement, but results from the change of circumstances.
A man who should attempt to exhibit in Sumatra the modern or irregular
style of laying out grounds would attract but little attention, as the
unimproved scenes adjoining on every side would probably eclipse his
labours. Could he, on the contrary, produce, amidst its magnificent
wilds, one of those antiquated parterres, with its canals and fountains,
whose precision he has learned to despise, his work would create
admiration and delight. A pepper-garden cultivated in England would not
in point of external appearance be considered as an object of
extraordinary beauty, and would be particularly found fault with for its
uniformity; yet in Sumatra I never entered one, after travelling many
miles, as is usually the case, through the woods, that I did not find
myself affected with a strong sensation of pleasure. Perhaps the simple
view of human industry, so scantily presented in that island, might
contribute to this pleasure, by awakening those social feelings that
nature has inspired us with, and which make our breasts glow on the
perception of whatever indicates the prosperity and happiness of our
fellow-creatures.

SURVEYS.

Once in every year a survey of all the pepper-plantations is taken by the
Company's European servants resident at the various settlements, in the
neighbourhood of which that article is cultivated. The number of vines in
each particular garden is counted; accurate observation is made of its
state and condition; orders are given where necessary for further care,
for completion of stipulated quantity, renewals, changes of situation for
better soil; and rewards and punishments are distributed to the planters
as they appear, from th