The quantity of betel-nut agreed for (three thousand peculs) was sent on board; and a further agreement entered into for three thousand peculs more, to be delivered in a few days after. Opium, at nine hundred dollars the chest, was taken in part payment: this was a high price, but netted to the sellers a profit of only ninety-five Java rupees, or forty-seven dollars; from the large quantity in the market at this place, it was with the greatest difficulty it could be disposed of even at that price: the dollars to be given in addition must have been the principal inducement, for opium had been purchased from the Penang brig, “Calder Bux,” at seven hundred and seventy dollars the chest; but we afterwards found only one dollar the pecul, or rather laxar, had been paid by that vessel, which will account for their giving in barter a higher price for the opium.
On the second agreement being made, the rajah and suite came on board to ratify it, which, after some disputes and discussions with all parties, was effected by the supercargo of the ship.
The principal article of exportation from this coast is Areka-nut, and a small quantity of rice; the latter, however, appeared of an inferior quality, and one-and-a-half dollar a pecul was demanded as the lowest price; the vessel would be required to furnish bags for the rice, as there are none manufactured on the coast, and a delay of the vessel would be also required to procure it. Areka-nut must, therefore, be regarded as the principal article of trade, as it is to be purchased cheap, and of a quality as excellent as in any part of the Eastern islands, or Cochin China.
The Areka palm is the Areka catechu of botanists; it is a palm of elegant growth, rising with a very erect and small stem to the height of forty or even sixty feet, the summit terminating in a tuft of dark-green foliage; the circumference of the trunk is seldom more than one-and-a-half to two feet, when of early growth of dark-green, and when old of a dark-grey colour; the circles formed by the clasping petioles of the fronds being very visible upon it: the tree bears fruit only once during the year, at which period the tree, with its long bunches of orange oval-shaped fruit, pendent from the upper part of the trunk, contrasted by the dark-green foliage, has a beautiful appearance. The Areka-nut, when planted, takes three years to arrive at a sufficient size to produce fruit; the wood of this palm is used at this place for a variety of purposes.
The fruit grows in long pendulous clusters, each about the size of a small hen’s egg; the external covering is thick, fibrous, covered by an orange-coloured epidermis; and on the thick fibrous husk being cleared away, the nut is discovered surrounded by its own immediate epidermis, which often proves difficult of removal. The nut is conical, but varies in some, having an elevated apex and small base, and others a large base and very slightly elevated apex. One nut is the natural produce of each fruit, although sometimes double or triple nuts are found, anomalies often met with in the vegetable kingdom.[155]
Many of the common drinking and baling utensils in the boats are made from the spathe of the Areka palm; and I have frequently seen a vessel for holding water made from it, which was not dissimilar to those made by the Australian natives from the bark of the Eucalypti trees; they use the flower spathe also for nailing upon the bottoms of their boats. May, June, and July, are the months for collecting the nuts. They had loaded nine ships this season; but forty vessels, of all sizes, have been freighted in one season, for Pinang, &c., from whence it is exported to China, Madras, and other parts of continental India.
The nuts vary in size; their quality, however, does not at all depend upon this property, but upon their internal appearance when cut, intimating the quantity of astringent matter contained in them. If the white, or medullary portion, which intersects the red or astringent part be small, has assumed a bluish tinge, and the astringent part is very red, the nut is considered of good quality; but when the medullary portion is in large quantity, the nut is considered more mature, and not possessing so much astringency, is not esteemed so valuable.
The quantity of nut produced on this coast is stated to be eighty thousand peculs. When there is no immediate demand for this article, it is not shelled, but preserved in the husk, as it is considered not to be so liable to be destroyed by the worm in that state; but although this is the opinion of the natives on the coast, yet I have seen nuts destroyed totally by the worm while in the husk, in the space of two months. The produce of the first month, or month-and-a-half, amounting usually to forty thousand peculs, the natives informed us is exported; and the second gathering, amounting to about the same quantity, is consumed in the country. The nuts were brought on board the ship in large boats, (originally built and employed as fishing vessels, except when required for this employment, they are from three to four tons burthen each, and are to be purchased for twenty or twenty-five dollars,) in bulk, and Manilla mat-bags, and are taken on board the ships in bulk. The quantity of Areka-nut imported by the Chinese, amounts to forty-five or forty-eight thousand peculs annually, exclusive of that brought from Cochin China, the amount of which is not known; in 1832, from a failure of the usual supply of nuts from Cochin China, forty-eight thousand peculs, imported from other places, sold so high as four dollars and three-quarters the pecul; the price it usually fetches in the China market is from two to three and three-quarter dollars the pecul. The principal consumption of the nut as a masticatory (in conjunction with the leaf called betel, produced from a vine, the Piper betel) is in the provinces of Quang, ton, (Canton, of Europeans,) Quang, si, and Che, keang, and may be seen, exposed for sale, on little stalls about the suburbs of Canton, with the other additional articles used in the preparation; it is also used as a mordant for coarse dyes. The Areka-nuts brought from Cochin China are considered by the Chinese the best imported. This may, however, arise from prejudice in favour of the production of a country so nearly allied to them, to that introduced by foreigners. In the central provinces of Hoo, kwang, and Kang, si, the nut is, after being bruised and pounded, mixed with the green food of horses as a preventive against a diarrhœa, to which that kind of food sometimes subjects them. It was likewise mentioned to me by a Chinese, that it is used as a domestic medicine in the north of China, small pieces being boiled; the decoction is administered in various visceral affections.
A cargo of this article generates so much heat as to raise the thermometer in the hold forty degrees above that on the deck; and from this circumstance, and the quantity of steam generated, the crew are prevented from sleeping between decks.
The Areka-nut is commonly known by the very prevailing Malay name of Pinang, or Pinong, but in the Acheenese language it is called Pénu, and the tree Ba, penu; Ba, signifying tree, is usually prefixed to the specific name, as Un, signifying plant, is prefixed to the name of a plant.