straits of Malacca.  Having made the accustomed presents to the raja we left Terimbaru, July 7th, and proceeded to Sa-masam, the raja of which place, attended by sixty or seventy men, well armed, met us and conducted us to his kampong, where he had prepared a house for our reception, treating us with much hospitality and respect.  The country round Sa-masam is full of small hills but clear of wood, and mostly pasture ground for their cattle, of which they have great abundance.  I met with nothing remarkable here excepting a prickly shrub called by the natives Andalimon, the seed-vessels and leaves of which have a very agreeable spicy taste, and are used by them in their curries.

July 10th.  Proceeded on our journey to Batang Onan, the kampong where the Malays used to purchase the cassia from the Battas.  After about three hours walk over an open hilly country we again came into thick woods, in which we were obliged to pass the night.  The next morning we crossed another ridge of very high hills, covered entirely with woods.  In these we saw the wild benzoin-tree.  It grows to a much larger size than the cultivated kind, and yields a different sort of resin called kaminian dulong or sweet-scented benzoin.  It differs in being commonly in more detached pieces, and having a smell resembling that of almonds when bruised.  Arrived at Batang Onan in the afternoon.  This kampong is situated in a very extensive plain on the banks of a large river which empties itself into the straits of Malacca, and is said to be navigable for sloops to within a day’s journey of Batang Onan.

CASSIA-TREES.

July 11th.  Went to Panka-dulut, the raja of which place claims the property of the cassia-trees, and his people used to cut and cure the bark and transport it to the former place.  The nearest trees are about two hours walk from Panka-dulut on a high ridge of mountains.  They grow from forty to sixty feet high, and have large spreading heads.  They are not cultivated, but grow in the woods.  The bark is commonly taken from the bodies of the trees of a foot or foot and half diameter; the bark being so thin, when the trees are younger, as to lose all its qualities very soon.  I here inquired for the different sorts of cassia-tree of which I had been told, but was now informed that there was only one sort, and that the difference they mentioned was occasioned entirely by the soil and situation in which the trees grow; that those which grow in a rocky dry soil have red shoots, and their bark is of superior quality to that of trees which grow in moist clay, whose shoots are green.  I also endeavoured to get some information with regard to their method of curing and quilling the cassia, and told them my intentions of trying some experiments towards improving its quality and rendering it more valuable.  They told me that none had been cut for two years past, on account of a stop being put to the purchases at Tappanuli; and that if I was come with authority to open the trade I should