Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/432

404 the less trouble in pounding it, with the wooden pestles and mortars, which are the only machines they use for this purpose.

The greater part of the marshy grounds are allotted to the cultivation of the sago tree, which furnishes the inhabitants with wholesome food. It forms an article of their sea-stores for long voyages, as does also the Canary almond, which they dry for preservation. That almond has likewise a very agreeable taste when newly gathered.

The rice consumed at Amboyna is not the produce of that island. Yet it would succeed well, on most of the low lands, where the water which issues from the bases of the mountains, presents very convenient situations for its culture. But the Dutch East India Company has prohibited the application of the land to this article; because the purchase of it drains from the island the specie paid by the Company for cloves. Thus those monopolists prevent the accumulation of ready money, and procure, at a very moderate rate, the produce of the labour of the inhabitants. Besides, as rice is much used by persons in tolerable circumstances, it is found to be a branch of lucrative commerce to the Company's agents, who import it chiefly from the island of Java.

By such means that Government, exclusively consulting its own interests, cramps the industry of