those that we eat at Batavia, had a finer grain than European beef, but it was less juicy, and miserably lean. Buffalos 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 but cher, who is always a Chinese, without the least scruple cuts off as much of the fat as he is desired, and af. terwards 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.

The

Besides these animals, which are tame, they have dogs and cats, and there are among the distant mountains some wild horses and cattle: buffalos are not found wild in any part of Java, though they abound in Macassar, and several other eastern islands. neighbourhood of Batavia, however, is plentifully sup plied 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 tygers, it is said, in great abun dance, and some rhinoceroses; in these parts also

there are monkies, and there are a few of them even in the neighbourhood of Batavia.

are scarce.

Of fish, here is an amazing plenty; many sorts are excellent, and all are very cheap, except the few that 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 housekeeper 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 an 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 sometimes 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 bet

ter.

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 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 snipes, 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 so liberal to the inhabitants of Java as to some 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 a description: besides which, the palm yields a wine of the same kind with that which has already been described in the account of the island of Savu; it is procured from the same tree, in the same manner, and is sold in three states. The first, in which it is called tuac manise, differs little from that in which it comes from the tree; yet even this has received some preparation altogether unknown to us, in consequence of which it will keep eight and forty hours, though otherwise 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 infusion of certain herbs and roots, by which it loses its sweetness, and acquires a taste very austere and disagreeable. In one of these states 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. XII.

Some Account of the Inhabitants of Batavia, and the adjacent Country, their Manners, Customs, and Manner of Life.

THE town of Batavia, although, as I have already observed, it is the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, is so 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 besides Europeans, there are Indians of various nations, and Chinese, besides a great number of negro slaves. 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 some 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 possess all public employments. No man, of whatever nation, can come hither to settle, in any other character than that of a soldier in the company's service, in which, before they are accepted, they must covenant to remain five years. As soon however as this form has been complied with, they are allowed, upon application to the council, to absent 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 soldiers.

Women, however, of all nations, are permitted to settle here, without coming under any restrictions; yet we were 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 scarce, were descendants from European parents of the third or fourth generation, the gleanings of many families who had successively come hither, and in the male line become extinct; for it is certain that, whatever be the cause, this climate is not so fatal to the ladies as to the other sex.

These women imitate the Indians in every particu. lar; their dress is made of the same materials, their hair is worn in the same 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 sell the produce of their labour to the merchant, resident here, for they are permitted to sell it to no one else; so that when a ship comes in, and bespeaks perhaps a hundred leagers of arrack, or any quantity of other commodities, the merchant has nothing to do but to send orders to his Chinese to see them delivered on board: he obeys the command, brings a receipt signed 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 must examine, receive, and lay up in his warehouse, according to the practice of other countries.

The Portuguese are called by the natives oranse. rane, 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 opprobious term, applied by Mahometans to all who do not profess their faith. These people, however, are Portu guese 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 knowledge of it: they speak indeed a corrupt dialect of the Portuguese language,