several years, is highly esteemed among the natives, constituting a powerful spirit, which causes violent intoxication followed by severe head-ache in persons not accustomed to its use. The substance that remains after separation is a deadly poison to fowls, dogs, and various other animals. Arrack is prepared by distillation: an inferior kind, made in a more simple and economical manner, is called _chiu_. Both are prepared by the Chinese, and a particular account of the method employed will be found under another head[45]. A kind of small beer is made at _Súra-kérta_ in a mode similar to the European process of brewing, by exciting fermentation in a solution of Javan sugar, with several spices and the leaves of the _pári_ instead of hops. When fresh, the liquor is sprightly, and not unpleasant to the taste; but it cannot be preserved longer than four or five days. The use of opium, it must be confessed and lamented, has struck deep into the habits, and extended its malignant influence to the morals of the people, and is likely to perpetuate its power in degrading their character and enervating their energies, as long as the European government, overlooking every consideration of policy and humanity, shall allow a paltry addition to their finances to outweigh all regard to the ultimate happiness and prosperity of the country. It is either eaten in its crude state as _mánta_, or smoked as _mádat_ or _chándu_. In the preparation of _mádat_, the crude opium is boiled down with the leaves of tobacco, _síri_, or the like, and used in a sticky or somewhat liquid state. In _chándu_, the opium is merely boiled down without any admixture, to a still thicker consistency, and rolled into small balls or pills, in which state, when dry, they are inserted into _bámbus_, and thus smoked. The crude opium is eaten principally by the people in the interior of the country, in the provinces of the native princes: the opium prepared for smoking is used along the coast, and generally in the other islands of the Archipelago; it is prepared by the Chinese. The use of opium, however, though carried to a considerable extent, is still reckoned disgraceful, and persons addicted to it are looked upon as abandoned characters, and despised accordingly. The effects of this poison on the human frame are so well described by the Dutch commissioners who sat at the Hague in 1803, and who much to their honour declared, "that no consideration of pecuniary advantage ought to weigh with the European government in allowing its use," that together with the opinion of Mr. Hogendorp, who concurred with them, I shall insert their statement here. The wish to do justice to authorities, whose views were so creditable to their country and their own character, and the importance of their opinion to an extensive population, will plead an apology for the length of the extract which I now present.