Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/441

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 42,5 or coco-nut husk, and therefore more fit for cables and standing-rigging, but less fit for running-rig- ging. The native shipping of all kinds are entire- ly equipped with the cordage of the gomuti ; and the largest European shipping in the Indies find the advantage of using cables of it. It undergoes no preparation but that of spinning and twistingj no material similar to our tar or pitch, indispensable to the preservation of hempen cordage, being ne- cessary with a substance, that, in a remarkable de- gree, possesses the quality of resisting alternations of heat and moisture. The best gomuti is the produce of the islands farthest east, as Amboyna and the other Spice Islands. That of Java has a coarse ligneous fibre ; the produce of Madura is better. Gomuti is generally sold in twisted shreds or yarns, often as low as a Spanish dollar a picul, and seldom above two, which last price is no more than one-sixth part of the price of Russia hemp in the London market. Were European ingenuity applied to the improvement of this material, there can be little doubt but it might be rendered more extensively useful. One of the most valuable productions of the In- dian Islands is teak iinibe? As mentioned in an- other place, it grows only abundantly in Java, from whence it may be exported in large quantities, such is the extent of the forests of it which exist in that island. Besides compass and crooked tim-