that
district was no more than 5.1 to 11, instead of 6 to 11, which would be
the proportion if not reduced by accidents; and further that, when the
whole produce of the twelve years was diffused over the whole number of
bearing vines during that period, the produce of one thousand vines came
out to be four hundred and fifty-three pounds, which must therefore be
estimated as the medium produce of that residency. The same principle of
calculation being applied to the other residencies, it appeared that the
mean annual produce of one thousand vines, in all the various stages of
bearing, taken collectively throughout the country, deduced from the
experience of twelve years, was four hundred and four pounds. It likewise
became evident from the statements drawn out by that gentleman that the
medium annual produce of the Company's settlements on the west coast of
Sumatra ought to be estimated at twelve hundred tons, of sixteen hundred
weight; which is corroborated by an average of the actual receipts for
any considerable number of years.

Thus much will be sufficient to give the reader an idea of
pepper-planting as a kind of science. How far in a commercial light this
produce answers the Company's views in supporting the settlements, is
foreign from my purpose to discuss, though it is a subject on which not a
little might be said. It is the history of the island and its
inhabitants, and not of the European interests, that I attempt to lay
before the public.

SPECIES OF PEPPER.

The natives distinguish three species of pepper, which are called at
different places by different names. At Laye, in the Rejang country, they
term them lado kawur, lado manna, and lado jambi, from the parts where
each sort is supposed to prevail, or from whence it was first brought to
them. The lado kawur, or Lampong pepper, is the strongest plant, and
bears the largest leaf and fruit; is slower in coming to perfection than
the second, but of much longer duration. The leaf and fruit of the lado
manna are somewhat smaller, and it has this peculiarity, that it bears
soon and in large quantities, but seldom passes the third or fourth
year's crop. The jambi, which has deservedly fallen into disrepute, is of
the smallest leaf and fruit, very short-lived, and not without difficulty
trained to the chinkareen. In some places to the southward they
distinguish two kinds only, lado sudul and lado jambi. Lado sulur and
lado anggor are not distinctions of speci