During Our Stay At Acheen, We Received Into Both Our Ships 140 Tons Of
Pepper, What Precious Stones And Other Merchandize Besides I Know Not.
But, On The Day Of Treason, Our Merchants Lost All The Money And Goods
They Had On Shore, Which Was Said To Be Of Great Value.
On this
occasion, many of our young adventurers were utterly ruined; among whom,
I most grieve at the loss
Sustained by poor John Davis, having not
only lost my friendly factor, but all my European commodities, with
those things I had provided to shew my love and duty to my best friends;
so that, though India did not receive me rich, she hath sent me back
sufficiently poor.
The island of Sumatra is pleasant and fertile, abounding in many
excellent fruits; but their only grain is rice, which serves them for
bread. They plough the land with buffaloes, which they have in great
numbers, but with small skill, and less industry. The rice grows in all
respects like our barley. They have plenty of pepper, which is grown in
large gardens or plantations, often a mile square. It grows like hops,
from a planted root, winding about a stake set to support it, till it
grows like a great bushy tree, whence the pepper hangs in small
clusters, three inches long, and an inch about, each cluster having
forty pepper-corns; and it yields as great increase as mustard-seed. At
Acheen they are able to load twenty ships every year, and might supply
more, if the people were industrious.
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