Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/431

] nut. Some of them always continue this amusement, except when they are eating or sleeping. I was much surprized that, notwithstanding their incessant use of lime, those people had in general very sound teeth. They become, however, of a blackish colour, which penetrates the enamel without diminishing its polish. They are in the practice of cleaning them frequently with a powder which is not very far fetched; for it consists merely of a calcareous stone of moderate hardness, which they pound between two pieces of hard grey stone. They also use a small quantity of this last stone, to rub the external part of their incisive teeth.

Those people, not content with chewing the betel, import from Malacca an extract of a bitter plant, known by the name of gamber, which they use for mastication.

Mountains of moderate elevation cover Amboyna, and principally the eastern part of that island.

The coffee which they gather appeared to us inferior to that of the Isles of France and of the Re-union. Besides, the Dutch settled in the Moluccas, are very careless in its preparation. Their domestics are in the practice of subjecting it to a degree of torrefaction, which almost reduces it to a cinder, in order that they may have the