have made the tour all round this dangerous spot, at about eighteen miles distant from the centre, and I found the aspect of the country on all sides equally dreary. The easiest ascent of the hills is from that part where the old ecclesiastic dwells. From his house the criminals are sent for the poison, into which the points of all warlike instruments are dipped. It is of high value, and produces a considerable revenue to the emperor.

The poison, which is procured from this tree, is a gum that issues out between the bark and the tree itself, like the camphor. Malefactors, who for their crimes are sentenced to die, are the only persons who fetch the poison; and this is the only chance they have of saving their lives. After sentence is pronounced upon them by the judge, who asks in court, whether they will die by the hands of the executioner, or go to the Upas-tree for a box of poison, they commonly prefer the latter proposal, as there is not only some chance of preserving their lives, but also a certainty, in case of their safe return, that a provision will be made for them in future by the Emperor. They are then provided with a silver or tortoise-shell box, in which they are to put the poisonous gum, and are properly instructed how to proceed while they are on their dangerous expedition. Among other particulars, they are always told to attend to the direction of the winds; as they are to go towards the tree before the wind; so that the effluvia from the tree is always blown from them. They are told, likewise, to travel with the utmost dispatch, as that is the only method of insuring a safe return. They are afterwards sent to the house of the old priest, to which place they are commonly attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain some days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ecclesiastic prepares them for their future fate by prayers and admonitions.

When the hour of their departure arrives, the priest puts on them a long leather cap with two glasses before their eyes, which comes down as far as their breast, and also provides them with a pair of leather gloves. They are then conducted by the priest, and their friends and relations, about two miles on their journey. Here the priest repeats his instructions, and tells them where they are to look for the tree. He shews them a hill, which they are told to ascend; and that on the other side, they will find a rivulet, which they are to follow, and which will conduct them directly to the Upas. They now take leave of each other, and amidst prayers for their success, the delinquents hasten away.

The worthy old ecclesiastic has assured me, that during his residence there, for upwards of thirty years, he had dismissed above seven hundred criminals in the manner which I have described; and that scarcely two out of twenty have returned. He shewed me a catalogue of all the unhappy sufferers, with the date of their departure from his house annexed, and a list of the offences for which they had been condemned. To which was added a list of those who had returned in safety. I afterwards saw another list of these culprits, at South-Charta, and found that they perfectly correspond with each other, and with the different informations which I afterwards obtained.

I was present at some of these melancholy ceremonies, and desired different delinquents to bring with them some pieces of the wood, or a small branch, or some leaves of, this wonderful tree. I have also

given them silk cords, desiring them to measure its thickness. I never could procure more than two dry leaves, that were picked up by one of them on his return; and all that I could learn from him concerning the tree itself was, that it stood on the border of a rivulet, as described by the old priest, that it was of a middling size, that five or six young trees of the same kind stood close by it; but that no other shrub or plant could be seen near it; and that the ground was of a brownish sand, full of stones, almost impracticable for travelling, and covered with dead bodies. After many coversations with the Malayan priest, I questioned him about the first discovery, and asked his opinion of this dangerous tree; upon which he gave me the following answer in his own language:

We are told in our New Alcoran, that, above an hundred years ago, the country round the tree was inhabited by a people strongly ad dicted to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha. When the great prophet Mahomet determined not to suffer them to lead such detestable lives any longer, he applied to God to punish them; upon which God raised this tree to grow out of the earth, which destroyed them all, and rendered the country for ever uninhabited."

Such was the Malayan's opinion. I shall not attempt a comment, but must observe, that all the Malayans consider this tree as an holy instrument of the great prophet to punish the sins of mankind, and, therefore, to die of the poison of the Upas is generally considered among them as an honourable death. For that reason, I also observed, the delinquents, who were going to the tree, were generally dressed in their best apparel.

This, however, is certain, though it may appear incredible, that from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only no human creature can exist, but that, in that space of ground, no living animal of any kind has ever been discovered. I have also been assured by several persons of veracity, that there are no fish in the waters, nor has any rat, mouse, or any other vermin, been seen there; and when any birds fly so near this tree, that the effluvia reaches them, they fall a sacrifice to the effects of the poison. This circumstance has been ascertained by different delinquents, who, in their return, have seen the birds drop down, and have picked them up dead, and brought them to the old ecclesiastic.

I will here mention an instance, which proves this fact beyond all doubt, and which happened during my stay at Java.

In the year 1775, a rebellion broke out among the subjects of the Massay, a sovereign prince, whose dignity is nearly equal to that of the Emperor. They refused to pay a duty imposed upon them by their sovereign, whom they openly opposed. They Massay sent a body of a. thousand troops to disperse the rebels, and to drive them with their families, out of his dominions. Thus four hundred families, consisting of sixteen hundred souls, were obliged to leave their native country. Neither the Emperor nor the Sultan would give them protection, not only because they were rebels, but also through fear of offend ing their neighbour the Massay. In this distressful situation, they had no other resource than to repair to the uncultivated parts round the Upas, and requested permission of the Emperor to settle there. Their request was granted, on condition of their fixing their abode not more than twelve or fourteen miles from the tree, in order not to deprive the inhabitants

already settled there, at a greater distance, of their cultivated lands. With this they were obliged to comply: but the consequence was, that in less than two months their number was reduced to about three hundred. The chiefs of those who survived returned to the Massay, informed him of their losses, and entreated his pardon; which induced him to receive them again as his subjects, thinking them sufficiently punished for their misconduct. I have seen and conversed with several of the survivors, soon after their return. They all had the appearance of persons tainted with an infectious disorder: they looked pale and weak; and from the account which they gave of the loss of their comrades, of the symptoms and circumstances which attended their dissolution, such as convulsions, and other signs of a violent death, I was fully convinced that they fell victims to the poison.

This violent effect of the poison, at so great a distance from the tree, certainly appears surprizing, and almost incredible; and especially when we consider, that it is possible for delinquents who approach the tree to return alive. My wonder, however, in a great measure ceased, after I had made the following observations.

I have said before, that malefactors are instructed to go to the tree with the wind, and to return against the wind. When the wind continues to blow from the same quarter, while the delinquent travels thirty, or six and thirty miles, and if he be of a good constitution he certainly survives. But what proves the most destructive is, that there is no dependence on the wind in that part of the world, for any length of time. There are no regular land winds; and the sea wind is not perceived there at all, the situation of the tree being at too great a distance, and surrounded by high mountains, and uncultivated forests. Besides, the wind there never blows a fresh regular gale, but is commonly merely a current of light soft breezes, which pass through the different openings of the adjoining mountains. It is also frequently difficult to determine from what part of the globe the wind really comes, as it is divided by various obstructions in its passage, which easily change the direction of the wind, and often totally destroy its effects.

I, therefore, impute the distant effects of the poison, in a great mea◄ sure, to the constant gentle winds in those parts, which have not power enough to disperse the poisonous particles. If high winds were more frequent and durable there, they would certainly weaken very much, and even destroy, the noxious effluvia of the poison; but without them the air remains infected, and pregnant with these poisonous vapours.

I am the more convinced of this, as the worthy ecclesiastic assured me, that a dead calm is always attended with the greatest danger, as there is a continual perspiration issuing from the tree, which is seen to rise and spread in the air, like the putrid stream of a marshy cavern.

The following experiments were made with the gum of the Upas-Tree. In the year 1776, in the month of February, I was present at the execution of thirteen of the Emperor's concubines, at Soura-Charta, who were convicted of infidelity to the emperor's bed. It was in the forenoon, about eleven o'clock, when the fair criminals were led into an open space, within the walls of the emperos's palace. There the judge passed sentence upon them, by which they were doomed to suffer death by a lancet poisoned with Upas. After this, the Alcoran was presented to them, and they were, according to the law of their great prophet Mahomet, to acknowledge and to affirm by oath, that the charges brought against them,

together with the sentence, and the punishment, were fair and equit able. This they did, by laying their right hand upon the Alcoran, their left upon their breast, and their eyes lifted towards heaven: the judge then held the Alcoran to their lips, and they kissed it.

These ceremonies over, the executioner proceeded on his business in the following manner :-Thirteen posts, each about five feet high, had been previously erected. To these, the delinquents were fastened, and their breasts stripped naked. In this situation they remained a short time in continual prayers, attended by several priests, until a signal was given by the judge to the executioner; on which the latter produced an instruinent, much like the spring lancet used by farriers for bleeding horses. With this instrument, it being poisoned with the of the Upas, the unhappy wretches were lanced in the middle of their breasts, and the operation was performed on them all in less than two minutes.

gum

My astonishment was raised to the highest degree, when I beheld the sudden effects of that poison: for in about five minutes after they were lanced, their were taken with a tremor, attended with a subfultus tendinum, after which they died in the greatest agony, crying out to God and Mahomet for mercy. In sixteen minutes by my watch, which i held in my band, all the criminals were no more. Some hours after their death, I observed their bodies full of livid spots, much like the petichia, their faces swelled, their colour changed to a kind of blue, their eyes -yellow, &c. &c.

About a fortnight after this I had an opportunity of seeing such another execution at Saramang. Seven Malayans were executed there with the same instrument, and in the same manner; and I found the operation of the poison, and the spots in their bodies, exactly the

same.

These circumstances made me desirous to try an experiment on some animal, in order to be convinced of the real effects of this poison; and as I had then two puppies, I thought them the fittest objects for my purpose. I accordingly procured, with some difficulty, some grains of Upas. I dissolved half a grain of the gum in a small quantity of arrack, and dipped a lancet into it. With this poisoned instrument I made an incision in the lower muscular part of the belly of one of the puppies. Three minutes after it had received the wound, the animal began to cry out most piteously, and ran as fast as possible from one corner of the room to the other. So it continued for six minutes, when all its strength being exhausted, it fell upon the ground, was taken with convulsions, and died in the eleventh minute. I repeated this experiment on two other puppies, with a cat and a fowl, and found the operation of the poison in all of them the same, none of these animals surviving above thirteen minutes.

I thought it also necessary to try the effects of the poison given inwardly, which I did in the following manner: I dissolved a quarter of a grain of the gum in half an ounce of arrack, and made a dog of seven months old drink it. In seven minutes a reaching ensued, and I observed at the same time, that the animal was delirious, as it ran up and down the room, fell on the ground, and tumbled about; then it rose again, cried out very loud, and in about half an hour was seized with convulsions, and died. I opened the body, and found the stomach much inflamed, as the intestines were in some parts, but not so much as the

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stomach. There was a small quantity of coagulated blood in the stomach, but I could discover no orifice from which it could have issued, and therefore supposed it to have been squeezed out of the lungs, by the animal's straining while it was vomiting.

From these experiments I have been convinced, that the gum of Upas is the most dangerous and most violent of all vegetable poisons; and I am apt to believe that it greatly contributes to the unhealthiness of that island. Nor is this the only evil attending it; hundreds of the natives of Java, as well as Europeans, are yearly destroyed and treacherously murdered by that poison, internally or externally applied. Every man of quality or fashion has his dagger, or other arms, poisoned with it; and in times of war, the Malayans poison the springs and other waters with it. By this treacherous practice the Dutch suffered greatly during the last war, as it occasioned the loss of half their army. For this reason they have ever since kept fish in the springs of which they drink the waters; and sentinels are placed near them, who inspect the waters every hour, to see whether the fish are alive. If they march with an army, or body of trooops, into an enemy's country, they always carry live fish with them, which they throw into the waters some hours before they venture to drink it, by which areans they have been able to prevent their total destruction.

This account, I flatter myself, will satisfy the curiosity of my readers; and the few facts which I have related will be considered as a certain proof of the existence of this pernicious trec, and of its penetrating effects.

If it be asked, why we have not yet any more satisfactory accounts of this tree, I can only answer, that the object of most travellers to that part of the world, consists more in commercial pursuits than in the study of natural history, and the advancement of science. Besides Java is so universally reputed an unhealthy island, that rich travellers seldom make any long stay in it, and others want money, and generally are too ignorant of the language, to travel in order to make enquiries. In future, those who visit this island will probably be induced to make it an object of their researches, and will furnish us with a fuller description of this tree.

I will, therefore, only add that there exists also a sort of CajoeUpas on the coast of Macassar, the poison of which operates nearly in the same manner, but is not half so violent and malignant as that of Java.

ANECDOTE.

Colonel Cockburn, who commanded in St. Eustatius when it was retaken, is said to have risen to that rank from a private soldier.Of this circumstance he was continually boasting, and upon occasions when it shewed more pride than humility.-One day in the island of St. Eustatius he was reviewing the troops, and took notice of a man in the ranks, who was excessively dirty.-Going up to him, he said, "How dare you, you rascal, appear on the parade with that dirty shirt, it is as black as ink. Did you ever see me so nasty with such a dirty shirt, when I was a private man ?” “ No, your honour, to be sure I never did, (answered the man) but then your honour will be pleased to recollect, that your honour's mother was a washer-woman."