The Chinese, possessing plantations of Gambir at Singapore, informed me, that twenty thousand peculs were manufactured annually upon the island; and some quantity of it was taken away by the Borneo and other native vessels. There are one hundred and fifty Gambir plantations upon the island, not including a number of plantations of young trees not yet producing the extract: there are also about one hundred and seventy plantations of the pepper-vine upon the island. At Rhio, as well as in Gambir manufactories generally, the whole of the leaves, (and sometimes even the stalks,) without any regard to their selection, are used. It appears, also, that when the qualie, or cauldron, is new, the extract prepared in it becomes very dark, and is sold only as a second quality at Rhio, and is almost unsaleable in the Java market: after the cauldron, however, has been in use for one or two years, the extract manufactured in it becomes of a much lighter colour. As the cauldrons are made principally of bark, it must be some colouring matter in it that is bestowed upon the extract; from this circumstance the old cauldrons are held more in estimation than the new. It appears that the white kind made at Rhio, by the women in their own houses, is not a regular article of commerce; but is preferred by a few for its refined appearance: it is prepared and brought into a white state, by the extract being re-dissolved, and passed through several washings, until the sediment has become of a white colour, when it is taken out, formed into cakes, and dried in the sun. It is rarely used in comparison with the other kinds of the Gambir extract. As we left the plantations, and entered the jungles, a dense vegetation surrounded us on every side, except the small pathway which led through it: the pathway, overshadowed by trees and entwining plants, made our walk during the heat of noon-day, in these situations, delightfully cool and refreshing. The _Sukun utan_, or wild bread-fruit trees, were very numerous in the jungle; the forest trees, towering to a great elevation, without a branch except at the summit, gave them much the character of those of Australia, but unlike them, in not having their foliage dull and arid. Many birds were shot, of the fly-catcher tribe, of handsome plumage; a beautiful small black falcon, not more than four or five inches in length, and some other small birds; but the feathered tribe were far from numerous: the swallow (not differing from our European species) was abundant about the settlement of Singapore; but I did not observe any in the interior of the island.