350 pigafbtta’s voyage round the world.

fiwnifhed us with hogs, goats, fowls, bananas of feveral fpecies; fome of thefe were acubit in length and as thick as a man’s arm ; others were but a fpan in length, whileothers again, and thefe were the mod excellent, were of Hill inferior fize. It likewifeproduces cocoa nuts, fugar-canes, and roots fnnilar to turnips. They cook their rice inhot embers, placing it in canes or wooden bowls, and find, by this procefs, that it keepsmuch longer than when boiled in pots. From the fame rice alfo, by means of an alem-bic, they extra# a wine ftronger and fuperior to palm wine *. In one word this iflandwas to us a land of protnife. It is fituate in latitude nine degrees twenty minutes north,longitude one hundred and feventy-one degrees twenty minutes from the line of demar-cation.

We prefented ourfelves before the King, who contracted an alliance and friendfliipwith us; and to convince us of his fincerity, he begged a knife of us, which he madeufe of for drawing blood from his breaft, with which he touched his forehead andtongue. We repeated the fame ceremony.

The inhabitants of Palaoan, like all the other people of thefe parts, go naked ; butthey are partial to wearing ornaments, fuch as rings, fmall chains of brafs, and littlebells. What, however, they are rnofl delighted with is brafs wire, to which they fallentheir hooks for fi firing.

Almofl every individual cultivates his own lands. They ufe farbacanes and largewooden darts more than a fpan in length, headed with a harpoon ; fome of them havea fifh-bone for a point, others a fharp piece of bamboo poifoned by means of a certain

ifland Paragua or Paragoia ; and I fee this fame ifland called Palaoan on a globe four feet in diameter,belonging to the family of Cufani, in which I have had the happinefs of living upwards of thirty years;and with pleafure I take this opportunity of publicly teftifying my gratitude for the kindnefs I have ex-perienced at their hands. This globe, as well as a celeftial globe of fimilar dimenfions, was made aboutthe middle of the feventeenth century by Father Sylveftro Amangio Moroncelli di Fabriano, a Celeftinemonk. In the chart annexed to Macartney’s Voyage, this ifland is denominated Palawan or Paragua,which proves that Palaoan or Paragua, or Paragoia , are only the fame name or rather different names ofthe fame ifland.

* This is arrack. The ftill made ufe of by the natives of this ifland is not deferibed, but it is likely toreferable that ufed in the Ample but ingenious procefs of diflillation common in various parts of continentalIndia . A hole is dug in the ground fuited to the fize of the jar they employ for containing the fermentedextraft of the rice. With the bottom of this hole is a fubterranean communication with the atmofphereto feed the fire with air, and in the fide of the hole a chimney which fer es as well to add frefh fuel by a*for a chimney. A fire of dry wood is kindled in the hole, and when the ground is thoroughly heated thepot or rather jar is fixed in the hole, and earth placed about it fo as to prevent the efcape of heat. Tothe neck of the jar a pan is placed, with a hole in the middle to fit the neck of the jar, to which the pan isperfectly luted : this pan has the bottom of it lower at the circumference than at the hole in the middle,and near the top is covered with a thin fheet of tin or other metal, or with a fhallow earthen pan with artextremely thin bottom, which ferves in lieu of a worm and vat to condenfe the vapour as it afeends. Tothe bottom of the lower pan, where two are employed, a long piece of bamboo is luted, through whichthe vapour, condenfed and formed into fpirit, runs to a pitcher or veffel placed to receive it. Anotherpiece of bamboo is luted into the bottom of the upper pan, or, where but one is ufed, communicating with* the upper furface of the metal plate through which the liquor for cooling the vapour runs to the waterveffel. This veffel is at firft nearly filled with water. When the heat of the fire below begins to caufethe fermented liquor in the jar to rife, an Indian with a pot or kettle pours a gentle llream of water fromthe veffel adjoining into the upper pan or on to the plate of tin, and continues to do this until the procefsis complete. The extreme cold excited by the evaporation of the water occafions the vapour which rife*from the jar to be immediately condenfed, and to run off through the pipe of bamboo to the receiver in atrickling ftream ; and the fpirit which runs off thus is found to be at leall as cold as that obtained bypalling through the worm of the cooler of European diftilleries. This cheap, ingenious, and truly philo-fophical procefs, fo much fuperior to that in ufe in this country, might perhaps admit of fuch improve-ment as to caufe it to fuperfede the neceflky for and great expence of our prefent apparatus for diftilling'Eng. Tr. —Communication of a proprietor in Bengal.

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