Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/437

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ARTICLES OF KXPORTATION. 421. is much used in paying the bottoms of ships and vessels. In Borneo it is obtained in larger quan- tities on the coasts, being floated down the rivers as a drift during the periodical floods to the sea, and afterwards cast ashore by the winds and cur- rents. By a previous arrangement, almost any quantity may be procured by the trader at the low rate of half a dollar a picul. It can be imported and sold in the market of Calcutta as low as two rupees four anas per maund, or 8s. Id. per cwt. cheaper than Stockholm pitch in the London mar- ket. According to Dalrymple, the island of Pa- lawan yields gum copal, which the natives call Tiiyii. Fifty piculs of it may be had annually. The sandal-wood of the Indian Islands is con- sidered inferior to that of Malabar ; yet no dis- tinction is made between them in the market^of China. The highest perfumed wood is that near- est the root of the tree ; and, for this reason, the largest billets are the highest priced. The sandal- wood of Timur, and the other easterly islands, from whence, for the convenience of the markets, it is imported into Java, costs there, according to its quality, from 8 to 13 Spanish dollars per picul. This, making no allowance, however, for inferiority of quality, is 45 per cent, cheaper than the Mala- bar sandal-wood. * In China, the great market

  • Bnrhai (ins Mywrc, Vol.11, j). 537.