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referred it to that class. These and some others do not merit to be particularly mentioned.

The quantity of fruit that is consumed at Batavia is incredible; but that which is publicly exposed to sale is generally over-ripe. A stranger, however, may get good fruit in a street called Passar Pissang, which lies north from the great church, and very near it. This street is inhabited by none but Chinese fruit-sellers, who are supplied from the gardens of gentlemen in the neighbourhood of the town with such as is fresh, and excellent in its kind, for which, however, they must be paid more than four times the market price.

The town in general is supplied from a considerable distance, where great quantities of land are cultivated merely for the production of fruit. The country people, to whom these lands belong, meet the people of the town at two great markets; one on Monday, called Passar Sineen, and the other on Saturday, called Passar Tanabank. These fairs are held at places considerably distant from each other, for the convenience of different districts; neither of them, however, are more than five miles distant from Batavja. At these fairs, the best fruit may be bought at the cheapest rate, and the sight of them to a European is very entertaining. The quantity of fruit is astonishing; forty or fifty cart-loads of the finest pine-apples, packed as carelessly as turnips in England, are common, and other fruit in the same profusion. The days, however, on which these markets are held are ill contrived; the time between Saturday and Monday is too short, and that between Monday and Saturday too long: Great part of what is bought on Monday is always much the worse for keeping before a new stock can be bought, either by the retailer or consumer; so that for several days in every week there is no good fruit in the hands of any people but the Chinese in Passar Pissang.

The inhabitants of this part of India practise a luxury which seems to be but little attended to in other countries; they are continually burning aromatic woods and resins, and scatter odours round them in a profusion of flowers, possibly as an antidote to the noisome effluvia of their ditches and canals. Of sweet-smelling flowers they have a great variety, altogether unknown in Europe, the chief of which I shall briefly describe.

1. The Champacka, or Michelia Champacca. This grows upon a tree as large as an apple-tree, and consists of fifteen long narrow petala, which give it the appearance of being double, though in reality it is not so: Its colour is yellow, and much deeper than that of a jonquil, to which it has some resemblance in smell.

2. The Cananga, or Uvaria Cananga, is a green flower, not at all resembling the blossom of any tree or plant in Europe: It has indeed more the appearance of a bunch of leaves than a flower; its scent is agreeable, but altogether peculiar to itself.

3. The Mulatti, or Nyctanthes Sambac. This is well known in English hot-houses by the name of Arabian jessamine: It grows here in the greatest profusion, and its fragrance, like that of all other Indian flowers, though exquisitely pleasing, has not that overpowering strength which distinguishes some of the same sorts in Europe.

4, 5. The Combang Curacnassi, and Combang Tonquin, Percularia Glabro. These are small flowers, of the dog'sbane kind, very much resembling each other in shape and smell, highly fragrant, but very different from every product of an English garden.

6. The Bonga Tanjong, or Mimusops Elengi of Linnæus. This flower is shaped like a star of seven or eight rays, and is about half an inch in diameter: It is of a yellowish colour, and has an agreeable smell.

Besides these, there is the Sundal Malam, or Polianthes Tuberosa. This flower, being the same with our own tuberose, can have no place among those that are unknown in Europe; but I mention it for its Malay name, which signi fies "Intriguer of the night," and is not inelegantly conceived. The heat of this climate is so great, that few flowers exhale their sweets in the day; and this in particular, from its total want of scent at that time, and the modesty of its colour, which is white, seems negligent of attracting admirers, but as soon as night comes on, it diffuses its fragrance, and at once compels the attention, and excites the complacency, of all who approach it.

These are all sold about the streets every evening at sunset, either strung upon a thread, in wreaths of about two feet long, or made up into nosegays of different forms, either of which may be purchased for about a half-penny. Besides these, there are, in private gardens, many other

sweet

sweet flowers, which are not produced in a sufficient quantity to be brought to market. With a mixture of these flowers, and the leaves of a plant called Pandang, cut into sinall pieces, persons of both sexes fill their hair and their clothes, and with the same mixture indulge a much higher luxury by strewing it on their beds; so that the chamber in which they sleep breathes the richest and purest of all odours, unallayed by the fumes which cannot but arise where the sleeper lies under two or three blankets and a quilt, for the bed covering here is nothing more than a single piece of fine chintz.

Before I close my account of the vegetable productions of this part of India, I must take some notice of the spices. Java originally produced none but pepper. This is now sent from hence into Europe to a great value, but the quantity consumed here is very small: The inhabitants use Capsicum, or, as it is called in Europe, Cayan pepper, almost universally in its stead. Cloves and nutmegs, having been monopolized by the Dutch, are become too dear to be plentifully used by the other inhabitants of this country, who are very fond of them. Cloves, although they are said originally to have been the produce of Machian, or Bachian, a small island far to the eastward, and only fifteen miles to the northward of the line, and to have been from thence disseminated by the Dutch, at their first coming into these parts, over all the eastern islands, are now confined to Amboina, and the small isles that lie in its neighbourhood; the Dutch having, by different treaties of peace between them and the conquered kings of all the other islands, stipulated, that they should have only a certain number of trees in their dominions; and in future quarrels, as a punishment for disobedience and rebellion, lessened the quantity, till at last they left them no claim to any. Nutmegs have in a manner been extirpated in all the islands except their first native soil, Banda, which easily supplies every nation upon earth, and would as easily supply every nation in another globe of the same dimensions, if there was any such to which the industrious Hollander could transport the commodity: It is, however, certain, that there are a few trees of this spice upon the coast of New Guinea. There may perhaps be both cloves and nutmegs upon other islands to the eastward; for those, neither the Dutch,

nor

nor any other European, seem to think it worth while to examine.

The principal tame quadrupeds of this country, are horses, cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and hogs. The horses are small, never exceeding in size what we call a stout galloway, but they are nimble and spirited, and are reported to have been found here when the Europeans first came round the Cape of Good Hope. The horned cattle are said to be the same species as those in Europe, but they differ so much in appearance, that we were inclined to doubt it: They have indeed the palearia or dewlap, which naturalists make the distinguishing characteristic of the European species, but they certainly are found wild, not only in Java, but several of the eastern islands. The flesh of those that we eat at Batavia, had a finer grain than European beef, but it was less juicy, and miserably lean, Buffaloes are plenty, but the Dutch never eat them, nor will they drink their milk, being prepossessed with a notion that both are unwholesome, and tend to produce fevers; though the natives and Chinese eat both, without any injury to their health. The sheep are of the kind which have long ears that hang down, and hair instead of wool: The flesh of these is hard and tough, and in every respect the worst mutton we ever saw. We found here, however, a few Cape sheep, which are excellent, but so dear that we gave five-and-forty shillings a-piece for four of them, the heaviest of which weighed only five-and-forty pounds. The goats are not better than the sheep; but the hogs, especially the Chinese breed, are incomparable, and so fat, that the purchaser agrees for the lean separately. The butcher, who is always a Chinese, without the least scruple cuts off as much of the fat as he is desired, and afterwards sells it to his countrymen, who melt it down, and eat it instead of butter with their rice: But notwithstanding the excellence of this pork, the Dutch are so strongly prejudiced in favour of every thing that comes from their native country, that they eat only of the Dutch breed, which are here sold as much dearer than the Chinese, as the Chinese are sold dearer than the Dutch in Europe.

Besides these animals, which are tame, they have dogs and cats, and there are among the distant mountains some wild horses and cattle: Buffaloes are not found wild in any

part

part of Java, though they abound in Macassar, and several other eastern islands. The neighbourhood of Batavia, however, is plentifully supplied with two kinds of deer, and wild hogs, which are sold at a reasonable price by the Portuguese, who shoot them, and are very good food.

Among the mountains, and in the desart parts of the island, there are tigers, it is said, in great abundance, and some rhinoceroses: In these parts also there are monkies, and there are a few of them even in the neighbourhood of Batavia.

Of fish, here is an amazing plenty; many sorts are excellent, and all are very cheap, except the few that are scarce. It happens here, as in other places, that vanity gets the better even of appetite: The cheap fish, most of which is of the best kind, is the food only of slaves, and that which is dear, only because it is scarce, and very much inferior in every respect, is placed upon the tables of the rich. A sensible house-keeper once spoke to us freely upon the subject. "I know," said he, " as well as you, that I could purchase a better dish of fish for a shilling, than what now costs me ten; but if I should make so good a use of my money, I should here be as much despised, as you would be in Europe, if you were to cover your table with offals, fit only for beggars, or dogs."

Turtle is also found here, but it is neither so sweet nor so fat as the West-Indian turtle, even in London; such as it is, however, we should consider it as a dainty; but the Dutch, among other singularities, do not eat it. We saw some lizards, or Iguanas, here of a very large size; we were told that some were as thick as a man's thigh, and Mr Banks shot one that was five feet long: The flesh of this animal proved to be very good food.

Poultry is very good here, and in great plenty: Fowls of a very large size, ducks, and geese, are very cheap; pigeons are dear, and the price of turkies extravagant. We some times found the flesh of these animals lean and dry, but this was merely the effect of their being ill fed, for those that we fed ourselves were as good as any of the same kind that we had tasted in Europe, and we sometimes thought them even better.

Wild fowl in general is scarce. We once saw a wild duck in the fields, but never any that were to be sold. We frequently saw snipes of two kinds, one of them exactly the

same

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