are dear, and the price of turkies extravagant. We fometimes 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 fame kind that we had tafted in Europe, and we fometimes thought them even better. Wild fowl in general is fcarce. We once faw a wild duck in the fields, but never any that were to be fold. We frequently faw fnipes of two kinds, one of them exactly the fame as that in Europe, and a kind of thrush was always to Be had in great plenty of the Portuguese, who, for I know not what reason, seem to have monopolized the wild fowl and game. Of fnipes, it is remarkable that they are found in more parts of the world than any other bird, being common almost all over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. With respect to drink, Nature has not been quite fo liberal to the inhabitants of Java as to fome whom she has placed in the less fruitful regions of the north. The native Javanese, and most of the other Indians who inhabit this island, are: indeed Mahometans, and therefore have no reason to regret the want of wine; but, as if the prohibition of their law respected only the manner of becoming drunk, and not drunkenness itself, they chew opium, to the total subversion: not only of their understanding but their health. The arrack that is made here, is too well known to need at description: besides which, the palm yields a wine of the fame kind with that which has already been described in the account of the island of Savu; it is procured from the fame tree, in the fame manner, and is fold in three ftates. The first, in which it is called Tuac manife, differs little from that in which it comes from the tree; yet even this has received ε fome 1770. December. 1770. December. fome preparation altogether unknown to us, in confequence of which it will keep eight and forty hours, though otherwife it would spoil in twelve: in this state it has an agreeable sweetness, and will not intoxicate. In the other two states it has undergone a fermentation, and received an infufion of certain herbs and roots, by which it lofes its sweetness, and acquires a tafle very auftere and difagreeable. In one of these ftates it is called Tuac cras, and in the other Tuac cuning, but the specific difference I do not know; in both, however, it intoxicates very powerfully. A liquor called Tuac is also made from the cocoa-nut tree, but this is used chiefly to put into the arrack, for in that which is good it is an essential ingredient. CHAP. CHAP. XII. Some Account of the Inhabitants of Batavia, and the adjacent Country, their Manners, Cuftoms, and Manner of Life. TH 1 HE town of Batavia, although, as I have already obferved, it is the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, is fo far from being peopled with Dutchmen, that not one fifth part, even of the European inhabitants of the town, and its environs, are natives of Holland, or of Dutch extraction: the greater part are Portuguese, and befides Europeans, there are Indians of various nations, and Chinese, befides a great number of negro flaves. In the troops, there are natives of almost every country in Europe, but the Germans are more than all the rest put together; there are fome English and French, but the Dutch, though other Europeans are permitted to get money here, keep all the power in their own hands, and consequently poffefs all public employments. No man, of whatever nation, can come hither to fettle, in any other character than that of a foldier in the Company's fervice, in which, before they are accepted, they must covenant to remain five years. As foon however as this form has been complied with, they are allowed, upon application to the council, to abfent themselves from their corps, and enter: immediately into any branch of trade, which their money or credit will enable them to carry on; and by this means it is that all the white inhabitants of the place are foldiers. Women, however, of all nations, are permitted to fettle here, without coming under any restrictions; yet we were. VOL. III. told X X 1770. December. 1770. December, told that there were not, when we were at Batavia, twenty women in the place that were born in Europe, but that the white women, who were by no means fcarce, were defcendants from European parents of the third or fourth generation, the gleanings of many families who had fucceffively come hither, and in the male line become extinct; for it is certain that, whatever be the caufe, this climate is not fo fatal to the ladies as to the other sex. These women imitate the Indians in every particular; their dress is made of the fame materials, their hair is worn in the fame manner, and they are equally enslaved by the habit of chewing betel. The merchants carry on their business here with less trouble perhaps than in any other part of the world: every manufacture is managed by the Chinese, who fell the produce of their labour to the merchant, resident here, for they are permitted to fell it to no one else; fo that when a ship comes in, and befpeaks perhaps a hundred leagers of arrack, or any quantity of other commodities, the merchant has nothing to do but to fend orders to his Chinese to see them delivered on board: he obeys the command, brings a receipt figned by the master of the ship for the goods to his employer, who receives the money, and having deducted his profit, pays the Chinese his demand. With goods that are imported, however, the merchant has a little more trouble, for these he muft examine, receive, and lay up in his warehouse, according to the practice of other countries. The Portuguese are called by the natives Oranferane, or Nazareen men, (Oran, being Man in the language of the country,) to distinguish them from other Europeans; yet they are included in the general appellation of Caper, or Cafir, an opprobrious term, applied by Mahometans to all who do not profess profess their faith. These people, however, are Portuguese only in name; they have renounced the religion of Rome, and become Lutherans: neither have they the least communication with the country of their forefathers, or even knowlege of it: they speak indeed a corrupt dialect of the Portuguese language, but much more frequently use the Malay : they are never suffered to employ themselves in any but mean occupations: many of them live by hunting, many by washing linen, and fome are handicraftsmen and artificers. They have adopted all the customs of the Indians, from whom they are distinguished chiefly by their features and complexion, their skin being confiderably darker, and their noses more sharp; their drefs is exactly the fame, except in the manner of wearing their hair. The Indians, who are mixed with the Dutch and Portu guese in the town of Batavia, and the country adjacent, are not, as might be fuppofed, Javanese, the original natives of the island, but natives of the various islands from which the Dutch import slaves, and are either fuch as have themselves been manumized, or the descendants of those who formerly received manumiffion; and they are all comprehended under the general name of Oranflam, or Ifalam, fignifying Believers of the true Faith. The natives of every country, however, in other refpects, keep themselves distinct from the reft, and are not lefs ftrongly marked than the flaves by the vices or virtues of their respective nations. Many of these employ themselves in the cultivation of gardens, and in felling fruit and flowers. The betel and areca, which are here called Siri and Pinang, and chewed by both fexes and every rank in amazing quantities, are all grown by these Indians: lime is also mixed with these roots here as it is in Savu, but it is lefs pernicious to the teeth, because it is first flaked, and, befides the lime, a substance called gambir, X X 2 which 1770. December. |