pany. During my refidence there, I received several different accounts of the Bohon-Upas, and the violent effects of its poison. They all then feemed incredible to me, but raised my curiofity in fo high a degree, that I resolved to investigate this fubject thoroughly, and to trust only to my own bfervations. In confequence of this refolution, I applied to the GovernorGeneral, Mr. Petrus Albertus van der Parra, for a pass to travel through the country: my request was granted; and, having procured every information, I fet out on my expedition. I had procured a recommendation from an old Malayan priest to another prieft, who lives on the nearest inhabitable spot to the tree, which is about fifteen or fixteen miles distant. The letter proved of great service to me in my undertaking, as that priest is appointed by the Emperor to refide there, in order to prepare for eternity the fouls of those who, for different crimes, are fentenced to approach the tree, and to procure the poison.

The Bobon-Upas is fituated in the island of Java, about twenty-feven leagues from Batavia, fourteen from Soura-Charta, the seat of the Emperor, and between eighteen and twenty leagues from Tinkjee, the present refidence of the Sultan of Java. It is furrounded on all fides by a circle of high hills and mountains; and the country round it, to the distance of ten or twelve miles from the tree, is entirely barren. Not a tree, nor a fhrub, nor even the least plant or grafs, is to be seen. I have made the tour all around this dangerous spot, at about eighteen miles distant from the centre, and I found the aspect of the country on all fides equally dreary. The easiest ascent of the hills is from that part where the old ecclefiaftic dwells, From his house the criminals are fent for the poison, into which the points of all warlike inftruments are dipped. It is of high value, and produces a confiderable revenue to the Emperor.

Account of the manner in which the Poifon is procured.

The poison which is procured from this tree, is a gum that iffues 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, they are asked in court, whether they will die by the hands of the executioner, or whether they will go to the Upas tree for a box of poison? They commonly prefer the latter proposal, as there is not only fome chance of preferving their lives, but also a certainty, in cafe of their safe return, that a provifion will be made for them in future by the Emperor. They are alfo permitted to ask a favour from the Emperor, which is generally of a trifling nature, and commonly granted. They are then provided with a silver or tortoisefhell box, in which they are to put the poisonous gum, and are properly inftructed how to proceed while they are upon 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, fo that the effluvia from the tree are 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 af

terwards sent to the house of the old priest, to which place they are commonly attended by their friends and relations. Here they generally remain fome days, in expectation of a favourable breeze. During that time the ecclefiaftic 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 glaffes 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 fhews them a hill, which they are told to ascend, and that on the other fide 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 fuccefs, the delinquents haften away.

The worthy old ecclesiastic has affured me, that during his refidence there, for upwards of thirty years, he had difmiffed above feven hundred criminals in the manner which I have defcribed; and that scarcely two out of twenty have returned. He fhewed me à catalogue of all the unhappy sufferers, with the date of their departure from his houfe annexed; and a list of the offences for which they had been condemned: to which was added, a lift of those who had returned in fafety. I afterwards faw another lift of these culprits, at the jail-keeper's, at Soura-Charta, and found that they perfectly correfponded with each other, and with the different informations which I afterwards obtained.

I was prefent at fome of these melancholy ceremonies, and defired different delinquents to bring with them some pieces of the wood, or a small branch, or fome leaves, of this wonderful tree. I have alfo given them filk cords, defiring 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 I could learn from him, concerning the tree itself, was, that it stood on the border of a rivulet, as described by the old prieft; that it was of a middling fize; that five or fix young trees of the fame kind ftood close by it; but that no other shrub or plant could be feen near it; and that the ground was of a brownish fand, full of ftones, almost impracticable for travelling, and covered with dead bodies. After many conversations with the old Malayan priest, I queftioned him about the first discovery, and asked his opinion of this dangerous tree; upon which he gave me the following answer:

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"We are told in our new Alcoran, that, above an hundred years ago, the country around the tree was inhabited by a people strongly addicted to the "fins of Sodom and Gomorrha; when the great Prophet Mahomet deter"mined not to fuffer them to lead fuch deteftable lives any longer, he applied

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to God to punish them: upon which God caused this tree to grow out of "the earth, which destroyed them all, and rendered the country for ever "uninhabitable."

Such was the Malayan opinion. I fhall not attempt to comment; but must observe, that all the Malayans confider this tree as an holy inftrument of the great prophet to punish the fins of mankind; and, therefore,

to die of the poifon of the Upas is generally confidered among them as an honourable death. For that reafon I also observed, that the delinquents, who were going to the tree, were generally dreffed 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 affured by several perfons of veracity, that there are no fish in the waters, nor has any rat, mouse, or any other vermin, been feen there; and when any birds fly fo near this tree, that the effluvia reaches them, they fall a facrifice to the effects of the poifon. 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 ecclefiaftic.

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

In the year 1775, a rebellion broke out among the fubjects of the Maf fay, a fovereign prince, whofe dignity is nearly equal to that of the Emperor. They refufed to pay a duty imposed upon them by their sovereign, whom they openly oppofed. The Maffay fent a body of a thousand troops to difperfe the rebels, and to drive them, with their families, out of his dominions. Thus four hundred families, consisting of above fixteen hundred fouls, 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 displeasing their neighbour, the Maffay. In this diftrefsful fituation, they had no other resource than to repair to the uncultivated parts round the Upas, and requested permission of the Emperor to fettle 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 confequence was, that in lefs than two months their number was reduced to about three hundred. The chiefs of those who remained returned to the Massay, informed him of their loffes, and intreated his pardon, which induced him to receive them again as fubjects, thinking them fufficiently punished for their misconduct. I have seen and conversed with feveral of thofe who furvived, foon after their return. They all had the appearance of perfons tainted with an infectious diforder; they looked pale and weak, and, from the account which they gave of the loss of their comrades, and of the symptoms and circumstances which attended their diffolution, fuch as convulfions, and other figns of a violent death, I was fully convinced that they fell victims to the poifon.

This violent effect of the poifon at fo great a distance from the tree certainly appears surprising, and almost incredible; and especially, when we confider that it is poflible for delinquents who approach the tree to return alive. My wonder, however, in a great measure, ceased, after I had made the following obfervations :

I have faid before, that malefactors are inftructed to go to the tree with

the wind, and to return against the wind. When the wind continues to blow from the fame quarter while the delinquent travels thirty, or fix and thirty miles, if he be of a good conftitution, he certainly furvives. But what proves the most deftructive is, that there is no dependence on the wind in that part of the world for any length of time.-There are no regular landwinds; and the fea-wind is not perceived there at all, the fituation of the tree being at too great a distance, and furrounded by high mountains and uncultivated forests. Befides, 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 alfo frequently difficult to determine from what part of the globe the wind really comes, as it is divided by various obftructions in its paffage, 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 measure, to the conftant gentle winds in those parts, which have not power enough to difperfe the poisonous particles. If high winds were more frequent and durable there, they would certainly weaken very much, and even destroy the obnoxious cffluvia 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 ecclefiaftic affured me, that a dead calm is always attended with the greatest danger, as there is a continual perfpiration iffuing from the tree, which is seen to rise and spread in, the air, like the putrid fteam of a marshy cavern,

Experiments made with the Gum of the UPAS-TREE.

was prefent at the exe

In the year 1776, in the month of February, cution 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 cleven o'clock, when the fair criminals were led into an open space, within the walls of the Emperor's palace. There the judge paffed fentence 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 fentence and their punishment, were fair and equitable. This they did, by laying their right hand upon the Alcoran, their left hand upon their breast, and their eyes lifted towards heaven; the judge then held the Alcoran to their lips, and they kiffed it.

These ceremonies over, the executioner proceeded on his bufinefs in the following manner :-Thirteen pofts, each about five feet high, had been previously erected. To thefe the delinquents were faftened, and their breasts fripped naked. In this fituation they remained a fhort time in continual prayers, attended by feveral priests, until a fignal was given by the judge to the executioner; on which the latter produced an inftrument, much like the fpring lancet ufed by farriers for bleeding horfes. With this inftrument, it being poisoned with the gum of the Upas, the unhappy wretches were lanced in the middle of their breafts, and the operation was performed upon them all in lefs than two minutes.

My aftonishment was raised to the highest degree, when I beheld the fud→ Hen effects of that poison; for in about five minutes after they were lanced they were taken with a tremor, attended with a fubfultus tendinum, after which they died in the greatest agonies, crying out to God and Mahomet for mercy. In fixteen minutes by my watch, which I held in my hand, all the criminals were no more. Some hours after their death, I obferved their bodies full of livid fpots, much like those of the Petechia, their faces fwelled, their colour changed to a kind of blue, their eyes looked yellow, &c. &c.

About a fortnight after this I had an opportunity of seeing such another execution at Samarang. Seven Malays were executed there with the fame inftrument, and in the fame manner; and I found the operation in the poison, and the fpots in their bodies, exactly the fame.

These circumstances made me defirous to try an experiment with fome animals, in order to be convinced of the real effects of this poifon; and as I had then two young puppies, I thought them the fittest objects for my purpose. I accordingly procured, with great difficulty, some grains of Upas. 1 diffolved half a grain of that 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 in one of the puppies. Three minutes after it received the wound the animal began to cry out most piteously, and tan as fast as poffible from one corner of the room to the other. So it continued during fix minutes, when all its ftrength being exhausted, it fell upon the ground, was taken with convulfions, and died in the eleventh minute. I repeated this experiment with two other puppies, with a cat and a fowl, and found the operation of the poifon in all of them the fame: none of thefe animals furvived above thirteen minutes.

I thought it neceffary to try alfo the effect of the poison given inwardly, which I did in the following manner. I diffolved 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 feven minutes a retching enfued, and I obferved, at the fame time, that the animal was delirious, as it ran up and down the room, fell on the ground, and tumbled about; then it rofe again, cried out very loud, and in about half an hour after was feized with convulfions, and died. I opened the body, and found the ftomach very much inflamed, as the intestines were in fome parts, but not fo much as the ftomach. There was a fmall quantity of coagulated blood in the ftomach; but I could discover no orifice from which it could have iffued; and therefore fuppofed it to have been squeezed out of the lungs, by the animal's ftraining while it was vo'miting.

From these experiments I have been convinced that the gum of the 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, either internally or externally. Every man of quality or fashion has his dagger or other arms poifoned with it; and in times of war the Malayans poifon the fprings and other waters with it. By this treacherous practice