In company with Mr. Moor and Dr. Martin, I made an excursion into the interior of the island, for the purpose of viewing the plantations of Gambir, Pepper, &c. as well as for the purpose of investigating its natural productions. Most of the residents, deeply engaged in mercantile pursuits, find but little leisure or inclination to explore the island, or ascertain its real capabilities, or the picturesque scenery and fertile soil it contains, their rambles being merely confined to evening drives, or walks, in the immediate vicinity of the settlement.
We went a short distance up the Singapore river in a sampan; the banks abounded in the dark green and rank mangrove trees, behind which hills arose, and occasional native dwellings. We did not proceed far before we landed among some Malay houses, surrounded with numerous palm, fruit, and flower trees; among which the lofty Jack tree, with its enormous fruit pending from the trunk or larger branches, the feathered cocoa palm, the erect Areka palm, a beautiful shrub of Hibiscus rosa-chinensis covered by a profusion of large flowers of a delicate nankin colour, and several large trees of the Bixa orellana, or arnotto of commerce, the Cashumpa of the Malays, (some of whom occasionally used it as a dye,) were numerous. One of these dwellings was a manufactory for the refining of sago, and another a native foundry for small cannon; the powerful fragrance of the tube rose (Polianthes tuberosa) was diffused around at the very curly hour of the morning we arrived, when the sparkling dew-drops had not yet forsaken the herbage, the sun not having yet the power to cause their glistening and refreshing decorations to vanish.
From this picturesque little spot we proceeded through a jungle of lofty grasses and shrubs, with elevated trees rising from the dense mass; a sedge grass bearing a beautiful silvery inflorescence, the Flemingea, Melastoma, different species of Nauclea, and numerous ferns were seen; of the latter, among other elegant species, was the widely-spread Gleichenia Hermanni, attaining the elevation amid the wilderness of six and eight feet, and Blechnum, Polypodium, Lycopodium, were mingled with others, adding to the denseness of the vegetation. As the sun rose and diffused its rays around, a great number of butterflies, beetles, and other insects passed away in enjoyment their short fleeting lives, and revelled upon the sweets the flowers contained. A lofty species of Pandanus, named by the Malays Ninpuan, was very abundant in moist situations; it rose with its long foliage bending at the extremities, and as the tree increased in elevation it bore a closer resemblance to the growth of the palm tree, and attained the height of forty and fifty feet. The leaves of this tree bleaching about the Malay houses, I found were used by them for a variety of purposes, as coverings for their dwellings, and the manufacture of coarse mats.
We often emerged from the pathways leading through a wild country, upon neat cottages, surrounded by plantations, inhabited and cultivated by that industrious class of people, the Chinese. A primary object of cultivation, I observed, was the Gambir-shrub,[65] and the pepper-vine: the former was cultivated and exported to a much greater extent, until the Dutch government, by heavy duties, prohibited its introduction into Java, in order to encourage the cultivation and exportation of it from their own settlement at Rhio. Vegetables of different kinds, the sugar-cane, &c. are also cultivated for the supply of the Singapore market.
The situations selected by the Chinese in this undulating country, for their farms and plantations were upon, or close to the sloping hills; and these places are selected for the Gambir and pepper plantations, the lower land proving too swampy. The pepper harvest had commenced, and the vines had the appearance of being very productive this season, being covered with a profusion of clusters of the pepper-berries, large, and of fine quality.[66] Some had even attained maturity, having changed from a dark-green to a vivid red. From the latter, the berry being in a ripe state, the white pepper is made; some of very excellent quality was shown us by a Chinese planter who had prepared it.
Instead of the usual and tedious process of drying the pepper in the sun after it has been gathered, I observed the planters, after collecting a large quantity together, steam it; by which, the drying process is expedited, without, it is said, the pepper losing any of its flavour by the operation. At the various plantations I visited, this process was found most generally adopted, although a small quantity was in a few instances laid out upon mats in the sun to dry. The steaming process is almost invariably adopted when the immediate demand for the article is very great, as it was at this time, pepper being in considerable demand at Singapore, for the English market. It was stated to me, that three thousand pepper-vines will produce fifty peculs of pepper annually.
The pepper vines are planted in rows, a short distance apart one from the other, and were, in this instance, trailed up split pieces of dead wood, which served as a prop to the vines; some were tied to their support; but generally they naturally attached themselves, by giving out fasciculi of roots from the joints, at certain distances.
Plantain trees were occasionally seen in the pepper plantations, probably for the certain degree of shade and moisture they may have afforded. It is said, that a pepper plantation will not thrive unless it be near one of the Gambir shrubs, or rather upon an estate where the Gambir extract is prepared. This was considered to result from the refuse leaves of the Gambir, after boiling, being requisite as manure for the vines. From my own observation, I ascertained this not to be the precise reason of the pepper-vines thriving better where Gambir-boiling houses and plantations existed, but from the Gambir leaves, after they had undergone the boiling process in the manufacture of the extract from them, being strewn thickly over the surface of the ground between the vines, for the purpose of preserving it in a cool and moist state. This was the principal reason of its being used, and, of course, the soil was finally improved by it, as well as it would be by any other dead vegetable matter. I did not observe in even a solitary instance that it was used about the roots of the vines, but, on the contrary, it was kept cleared from them, the roots of the vines having the earth hoed up about them, leaving a circular space around, and ashes were occasionally mingled with the earth about them, as a manure.