natives, however, sold what they afterwards brought down much to their satisfaction, without paying part of the price to him as a reward for exacting money from us. Most of the buffaloes that we bought, after our friend, the prime 1 minister, had procured us a fair market, were sold for a 1 musket a-piece, and at this price we might have bought as many as would have freighted our ship.

The refreshments which we procured here consisted of nine buffaloes, six sheep, three hogs, thirty dozen of fowls, a few limes, and some cocoa-nuts; many dozen of eggs, half of which, however, proved to be rotten; a little garlic, and several hundred gallons of palm syrup.

SECTION XXXVI.

A particular Description of the Island of Savu, its Produce, and Inhabitants, with a Specimen of their Language.

THIS island is called by the natives Savu; the middle of it lies in about the latitude 10° 35' S., longitude 237° 30′ W.; and has in general been so little known, that I never saw a map or chart in which it is clearly or accurately laid down. I have seen a very old one, in which it is called Sou, and confounded with Sandel Bosch. Rumphius mentions an island by the name of Saow, and he also says that it is the same which the Dutch call Sandel Bosch: But neither is this island, nor Timor, nor Rotte, nor indeed any one of the islands that we have seen in these seas, placed within a reasonable distance of its true situation. It is about eight leagues long from east to west; but what is its breadth, I do not know, as I saw only the north side. The harbour in which we lay is called Seba, from the district in which it lies: It is on the north-west side of the island, and well sheltered from the south-west trade-wind, but it lies open to the north-west. We were told that there were two other bays

These islands are far from being well known to Europeans. The policy of both Portuguese and Dutch has ever been unfavourable to the communication, whatever it may have been to the commercial extension, of geographical science. Pinkerton has laid down (in his map of East India isles) Sou, as he has chosen to call it, in 10 S. lat., and 121° 30′ E. long, but on what authority does not appear. He does not, however, confound it with Sandle-Wood Island.-E.

bays where ships might anchor; that the best, called Timo, was on the south-west side of the south-east point: Of the third we learnt neither the name nor situation. The seacoast, in general, is low; but in the middle of the island there are hills of a considerable height. We were upon the coast at the latter end of the dry season, when there had been no rain for seven months; and we were told that when the dry season continues so long, there is no running stream of fresh water upon the whole island, but only small springs, which are at a considerable distance from the sea-side; yet nothing can be imagined so beautiful as the prospect of the country from the ship. The level ground next to the seaside was covered with cocoa-nut trees, and a kind of palm called arecas; and beyond them the hills, which rose in a gentle and regular ascent, were richly clothed, quite to the summit, with plantations of the fan-palm, forming an almost impenetrable grove. How much even this prospect must be improved, when every foot of ground between the trees is covered with verdure, by maize, and millet, and indigo, can scarcely be conceived but by a powerful imagination, not unacquainted with the stateliness and beauty of the trees that adorn this part of the earth. The dry season commences in March or April, and ends in October or November.

The principal trees of this island are the fan-palm, the cocoa-nut, tamarind, limes, oranges, and mangoes; and other vegetable productions are maize, Guinea-corn, rice, millet, callevances, and water-melons. We saw also one sugar-cane, and a few kinds of European garden-stuff, particularly cellery, marjoram, fennel, and garlic. For the supply of luxury, it has betel, areca, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and a small quantity of cinnamon, which seems to be planted here only for curiosity; and indeed we doubted whether it was the genuine plant, knowing that the Dutch are very careful not to trust the spices out of their proper islands. There are, however, several kinds of fruit besides those which have been already mentioned; particularly the sweet-sop, which is well known to the West Indians, and a small oval fruit, called the blimbi, both of which grow upon frees. The blimbi is about three or four inches long, and in the middle about as thick as a man's finger, tapering towards each end: It is covered with a very thin skin of a light green colour, and in the inside are a few seeds dispo

sed

1

sed in the form of a star: Its flavour is a light, clean, pleasant acid, but it cannot be eaten raw; it is said to be excellent as a pickle; and stewed, it made a most agreeable sour sauce to our boiled dishes.

The tame animals are buffaloes, sheep, goats, hogs, fowls, pigeons, horses, asses, dogs, and cats; and of all these there is great plenty. The buffaloes differ very considerably from the horned cattle of Europe in several particulars; their ears are much larger, their skins are almost without hair, their horns are curved towards each other, but together bend directly backwards, and they have no dewlaps. We saw several that were as big as a well-grown European ox, and there must be some much larger; for Mr Banks saw a pair of horns which measured, from tip to tip, three feet nine inches and a half, across their widest diameter, four feet one inch and a half, and in the whole sweep of their semicircle in front, seven feet six inches and a half. It must, however, be observed, that a buffalo here of any given size, does not weigh above half as much as an ox of the same size in England: Those that we guessed to weigh four hundred weight, did not weigh more than two hundred and fifty; the reason is, that so late in the dry season the bones are very thinly covered with flesh: There is not an ounce of fat in a whole carcase, and the flanks are literally nothing but skin and bone: The flesh, however, is well tasted and juicy, and I suppose better than the flesh of an English ox would be if he was to starve in this sun-burnt country.

The horses are from eleven to twelve hands high, but though they are small, they are spirited and nimble, especially in pacing, which is their common step: The inhabitants generally ride them without a saddle, and with no better bridle than a halter. The sheep are of the kind which in England are called Bengal sheep, and differ from ours in many particulars. They are covered with hair instead of wool; their ears are very large, and hang down under their horns, and their noses are arched; they are thought to have a general resemblance to a goat, and for that reason are frequently called cabritos: Their flesh we thought the worst mutton we had ever eaten, being as lean as that of the buffaloes, and without flavour. The hogs, however, were some of the fattest we had ever seen, though, as we were told, their principal food is the outside husks of rice, and a palm

syrup

syrup dissolved in water. The fowls are chiefly of the game breed, and large, but the eggs are remarkably small.

Of the fish which the sea produces here, we know but little Turtles are sometimes found upon the coast, and are by these people, as well as all others, considered as a dainty. The people are rather under than over the middling size; the women especially are remarkably short and squat built; Their complexion is a dark brown, and their hair universally black and lank. We saw no difference in the colour of rich and poor, though in the South-Sea islands those that were exposed to the weather were almost as brown as the New Hollanders, and the better sort nearly as fair as the natives of Europe. The men are in general well-made, vigorous, and active, and have a greater variety in the make and disposition of their features than usual: The countenances of the women, on the contrary, are all alike.

The men fasten their hair up to the top of their heads with a comb, the women tie it behind in a club, which is very far from becoming. Both sexes eradicate the hair from under the arm, and the men do the same by their beards, for which purpose, the better sort always carry a pair of silver pincers hanging by a string round their necks; some, however, suffer a very little hair to remain upon their upper-lips, but this is always kept short.

The dress of both sexes consists of cotton cloth, which being dyed blue in the yarn, and not uniformly of the same shade, is in clouds or waves of that colour, and even in our eye had not an inelegant appearance. This cloth they manufacture themselves, and two pieces, each about two yards long, and a yard and a half wide, make a dress: One of them is worn round the middle, and the other covers the upper part of the body: The lower edge of the piece that goes round the middle, the men draw pretty tight just below the fork, the upper edge of it is left loose, so as to form a kind of hollow belt, which serves them as a pocket to carry their knives, and other little implements which it is convenient to have about them. The other piece of cloth is passed through this girdle behind, and one end of it being brought over the left shoulder, and the other over the right,

2 The reader will please remember this evidence of the nutritious quality of the palm-syrup. He will find it useful very shortly, when the valuc of sugar as an article of diet is mentioned.-E

right, they fall down over the breast, and are tucked into the girdle before, so that by opening or closing the plaits, they can cover more or less of their bodies as they please; the arms, legs, and feet are always naked. The difference between the dress of the two sexes consists principally in the manner of wearing the waist-piece; for the women, instead of drawing the lower edge tight, and leaving the upper edge loose for a pocket, draw the upper edge tight, and let the lower edge fall as low as the knees, so as to form a petticoat; the body-piece, instead of being passed through the girdle, is fastened under the arms, and cross the breast with the utmost decency. I have already observed that the men fastened the hair upon the top of the head, and the women tie it in a club behind, but there is another differ ence in the head-dress, by which the sexes are distinguished: The women wear nothing as a succedaneum for a cap, but the men constantly wrap something round their heads in the manner of a fillet; it is small, but generally of the finest materials that can be procured: We saw some who applied silk handkerchiefs to this purpose, and others that wore fine cotton, or muslin, in the manner of a small turban.

These people bore their testimony that the love of finery is a universal passion, for their ornaments were very nume rous. Some of the better sort wore chains of gold round their necks, but they were made of plaited wire, and conse quently were light and of little value; others had rings, which were so much worn that they seemed to have de scended through many generations; and one person had a silver-headed cane, marked with a kind of cypher, consisting of the Roman letters, V, O, C, and therefore probably a present from the Dutch East India Company, whose mark it is: They have also ornaments made of beads, which some wear round their necks as a solitaire, and others as bracelets, upon their wrists: These are common to both sexes, but the women have, besides, strings or girdles of beads, which they wear round their waists, and which serve to keep up their petticoat. Both sexes had their ears bored, nor was there a single exception that fell under our notice, yet we never saw an ornament in any of them; we never, indeed, saw either man or woman in any thing but what appeared to be their ordinary dress, except the king and his minister, who in general wore a kind of night-gown

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