24. Nanca. This fruit, which in some parts of India is called Jakes,

has, like the Durion, a smell very disagreeable to strangers, and

somewhat resembling that of mellow apples mixed with garlick: the

flavour is not more adapted to the general taste. In some countries that

are favourable to it, it is said to grow to an immense size. Rumphius

relates, that it is sometimes so large that a man cannot easily lift it;

and we were told by a Malay, that at Madura it is sometimes so large as

not to be carried but by the united efforts of two men. At Batavia,

however, they never exceed the size of a large melon, which in shape

they very much resemble: they are covered with angular prickles, like

the shootings of some chrystals, which however are not hard enough to

wound those who handle them.

25. Champada. This differs from the Nanca in little except size, it not

being so big.

26. Rambutan. This is a fruit little known to Europeans; in appearance

it very much resembles a chestnut with the husk on, and like that, is

covered with small points, which are soft and of a deep red colour:

under this skin is the fruit, and within the fruit a stone; the eatable

part thereof is small in quantity, but its acid perhaps is more

agreeable than any other in the whole vegetable kingdom.

27. Jambolan. This in size and appearance is not unlike a damascene; but

in taste is still more astringent, and therefore less agreeable.

28. The Boa Bidarra; or _Rhamnus Jujuba_ of Linnæus. This is a round

yellow fruit, about the size of a gooseberry; its flavour is like that

of an apple, but it has the astringency of a crab.

29. Nam nam. The _Cynometra Cauliflora_ of Linnæus. This fruit in shape

somewhat resembles a kidney; it is about three inches long, and the

outside is very rough: it is seldom eaten raw, but fried with batter it

makes a good fritter.

30, 31. The Catappa, or _Terminalia Catappa_; and the Canare, the

_Canarium commune_ of Linnæus; are both nuts, with kernels somewhat

resembling an almond; but the difficulty of breaking the shell is so

great, that they are no where publicly sold. Those which we tasted were

gathered for curiosity by Mr. Banks, from the tree upon which they grew.

32. The Madja, or _Limoni_ of Linnæus, contains, under a hard brittle

shell, a lightly acid pulp, which cannot be eaten without sugar; and

with it, is not generally thought pleasant.

33. Suntul. The _Trichilia_ of Linnæus. This is the worst of all the

fruits that I shall particularly mention: in size and shape it resembles

the Madja; and within a thick skin contains kernels like those of the

Mangostan, the taste of which is both acid and astringent, and so

disagreeable that we were surprised to see it exposed upon the

fruit-stalls.

34, 35, 36. The Blimbing, or _Averrhoa Belimbi_; the Blimbing Besse, or

_Averrhoa Carambola_; and the Cherrema, or _Averrhoa acida_ of Linnæus,

are three species of one genus: and though they differ in shape, are

nearly of the same taste. The Blimbing Besse is the sweetest: the other

two are so austerely acid, that they cannot be used without dressing;

they make however excellent pickles and sour sauce.

37. The Salak, or _Calamus Rotang Zalacca_ of Linnæus. This is the fruit

of a prickly bush; it is about as big as a walnut, and covered with

scales, like those of a lizard: below the scales are two or three yellow

kernels, in flavour somewhat resembling a strawberry.

Besides these, the island of Java, and particularly the country round

Batavia, produces many kinds of fruit which were not in season during

our stay; we were also told that apples, strawberries, any many other

fruits from Europe, had been planted up in the mountains, and flourished

there in great luxuriance. We saw several fruits preserved in sugar,

that we did not see recent from the tree, one of which is called

_Kimkit_, and another _Boa Atap_; and here are several others which are

eaten only by the natives, particularly the _Kellor_, the _Guilindina_,

the _Moringa_, and the _Soccum_. The Soccum is of the same kind with the

bread-fruit in the South Sea islands, but so much inferior, that if it

had not been for the similitude in the outward appearance both of the

fruit and the tree, we should not have 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 Batavia. At these fairs, the best fruit may be bought at

the cheapest rate; and the sight of them to an 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 Caracnassi_, and _Combang Tonquin_, _Percularia

Glabro_, These are small flowers, of the dog’s-bane 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 signifies “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 halfpenny. Besides these, there are, in private gardens, many other

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 small 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 any

other European, seem to think it worth while to examine.

The principal tame quadrupeds of this country are horses, cattle,

buffalos, 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. 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 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:

buffalos are not found wild in any 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 desert 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

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 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 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 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 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 looses 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 Dutch men, 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 particular; 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 _Oranserane_, 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 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 knowledge 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 some 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 considerably darker, and

their noses more sharp; their dress is exactly the same, except in the

manner of wearing their hair.

The Indians, who are mixed with the Dutch and Portuguese in the town of

Batavia, and the country adjacent, are not, as might be supposed,

Javanese, the original natives of the island, but natives of the various

islands from which the Dutch import slaves, and are either such as have

themselves been manumized, or the descendants of those who formerly

received manumission; and they are all comprehended under the general

name of _Oranslam_, or _Isalam_, signifying Believers of the true Faith.

The natives of every country, however, in other respects, keep

themselves distinct from the rest, and are not less strongly marked than

the slaves by the vices or virtues of their respective nations. Many of

these employ themselves in the cultivation of gardens, and in selling

fruit and flowers. The betel and areca, which are here called _Siri_ and

_Pinang_, and chewed by both sexes 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 less pernicious to the teeth, because it is

first slaked, and, besides the lime, a substance called _gambir_, which

is brought from the continent of India; the better sort of women also

add cardamum, and many other aromatics, to give the breath an agreeable

smell. Some of the Indians, however, are employed in fishing, and as

lightermen, to carry goods from place to place by water; and some are

rich, and live with much of the splendour of their country, which

chiefly consists in the number of their slaves.

In the article of food these Isalams are remarkably temperate: it

consists chiefly of boiled rice, with a small proportion of buffalo,

fish, or fowl, and sometimes of dried fish, and dried shrimps, which are

brought hither from China; every dish, however, is highly seasoned with

Cayan pepper, and they have many kinds of pastry made of rice-flour, and

other things to which I am a stranger; they eat also a great deal of

fruit, particularly plantains.

But notwithstanding their general temperance, their feasts’ are

plentiful, and, according to their manner, magnificent. As they are

Mahometans, wine and strong liquors professedly make no part of their

entertainment, neither do they often indulge with them privately,

contenting themselves with their betel and opium.

The principal solemnity among them is a wedding, upon which occasion

both the families borrow as many ornaments of gold and silver as they

can, to adorn the bride and bridegroom, so that their dresses are very

showy and magnificent. The feasts that are given upon these occasions

among the rich, last sometimes a fortnight, and sometimes longer; and

during this time, the man, although married on the first day, is, by the

women, kept from his wife.

The language that is spoken among all these people, from what place

soever they originally came, is the Malay; at least it is a language so

called, and probably it is a very corrupt dialect of that spoken at

Malacca. Every little island indeed has a language of its own, and Java

has two or three, but this lingua franca is the only language that is

now spoken here, and, as I am told, it prevails over a great part of the

East Indies. A dictionary of Malay and English was published in London

by Thomas Bowrey, in the year 1701.

Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon the head, and to increase

the quantity, they use oils, and other preparations of various kinds. Of

this ornament Nature has been very liberal; it is universally black, and

is formed into a kind of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where

it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpressibly

elegant; the wreath of hair is surrounded by another of flowers, in

which the Arabian jessamine is beautifully intermixed with the golden

stars of the _Bonger Tanjong_.

Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the river at least once a day,

a practice which, in this hot country, is equally necessary both to

personal delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also, whatever

they may suffer in their colour by chewing betel, are an object of great

attention: the ends of them, both in the upper and under jaw, are rubbed

with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and painful operation,

till they are perfectly even and flat, so that they cannot lose less

than half a line in their length. A deep groove is then made across the

teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, and in the middle

between them and the extremity of the teeth; the depth of this groove is

at least equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, so that it

penetrates far beyond what is called the enamel, the least injury to

which, according to the dentists of Europe, is fatal; yet among these

people, where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is universal, we

never saw a rotten tooth; nor is the blackness a stain, but a covering,

which may be washed off at pleasure, and the teeth then appear as white

as ivory, which however is not an excellence in the estimation of the

belles and beaus of these nations.

These are the people among whom the practice that is called _a mock_, or

running a muck, has prevailed for time immemorial. It is well known,

that to run a muck in the original sense of the word, is to get

intoxicated with opium, and then rush into the street with a drawn

weapon, and kill whoever comes in the way, till the party is himself

either killed or taken prisoner; of this several instances happened

while we were at Batavia, and one of the officers, whose business it is,

among other things, to apprehend such people, told us, that there was

scarcely a week in which he, or some of his brethren, were not called

upon to take one of them into custody. In one of the instances that came

to our knowledge, the party had been severely injured by the perfidy of

women, and was mad with jealousy before he made himself drunk with

opium; and we were told, that the Indian who runs a muck is always first

driven to desperation by some outrage, and always first revenges himself

upon those who have done him wrong: we were also told, that though these

unhappy wretches afterwards run into the street with a weapon in their

hand, frantic and foaming at the mouth, yet they never kill any but

those who attempt to apprehend them, or those whom they suspect of such

an intention, and that whoever gives them way is safe. They are

generally slaves, who indeed are most subject to insults, and least able

to obtain legal redress: freemen, however, are sometimes provoked into

this extravagance, and one of the persons who run a muck while we were

at Batavia, was free and in easy circumstances. He was jealous of his

own brother, whom he first killed, and afterwards two others, who

attempted to oppose him: he did not, however, come out of his house, but

endeavoured to defend himself in it, though the opium had so far

deprived him of his senses, that of three muskets, which he attempted to

use against the officers of justice, not one was either loaded or

primed. If the officer takes one of these amocks, or mohawks, as they

have been called by an easy corruption, alive, his reward is very

considerable, but if he kills them, nothing is added to his usual pay;

yet such is the fury of their desperation, that three out of four are of

necessity destroyed in the attempt to secure them, though the officers

are provided with instruments like large tongs, or pincers, to lay hold

of them without coming within the reach of their weapon. Those who

happen to be taken alive are generally wounded, but they are always

broken alive upon the wheel, and if the physician who is appointed to

examine their wounds, thinks them likely to be mortal, the punishment is

inflicted immediately, and the place of execution is generally the spot

where the first murder was committed.

Among these people, there are many absurd practices and opinions which

they derive from their pagan ancestors: they believe that the devil,

whom they call Satan, is the cause of all sickness and adversity, and

for this reason, when they are sick, or in distress, they consecrate

meat, money, and other things to him, as a propitiation. If any one

among them is restless, and dreams for two or three nights successively,

he concludes that Satan has taken that method of laying his commands

upon him, which, if he neglects to fulfil, he will certainly suffer

sickness or death, though they are not revealed with sufficient

perspicuity to ascertain their meaning: to interpret his dream,

therefore, he taxes his wits to the uttermost, and if, by taking it

literally or figuratively, directly or by contraries, he can put no

explanation upon it that perfectly satisfies him, he has recourse to the

cawin or priest, who assists him with a comment and illustrations, and

perfectly reveals the mysterious suggestions of the night. It generally

appears that the devil wants victuals or money, which are always

allotted him, and being placed on a little plate of cocoa-nut leaves,

are hung upon the branch of a tree near the river, so that it seems not

to be the opinion of these people, that, in prowling the earth, “the

devil walketh through dry places.” Mr. Banks once asked, whether they

thought Satan spent the money, or ate the victuals; he was answered,

that as to the money it was considered rather as a mulct upon an

offender, than a gift to him who had enjoined it, and that therefore, if

it was devoted by the dreamer, it mattered not into whose hands it came,

and they supposed that it was generally the prize of some stranger who

wandered that way; but as to the meat they were clearly of opinion, that

although the devil did not eat the gross parts, yet, by bringing his

mouth near it, he sucked out all its savour without changing its

position, so that afterwards it was as tasteless as water.

But they have another superstitious opinion that is still more

unaccountable. They believe that women, when they are delivered of

children, are frequently at the same time delivered of a young

crocodile, as a twin to the infant: they believe that these creatures

are received most carefully by the midwife, and immediately carried down

to the river, and put into the water. The family in which such a birth

is supposed to have happened, constantly put victuals into the river for

their amphibious relation, and especially the twin, who, as long as he

lives, goes down to the river at stated seasons, to fulfil this

fraternal duty, for the neglect of which, it is the universal opinion

that he will be visited with sickness or death. What could at first

produce a notion so extravagant and absurd, it is not easy to guess,

especially as it seems to be totally unconnected with any religious

mystery, and how a fact which never happened, should be pretended to

happen every day, by those who cannot be deceived into a belief of it by

appearances, nor have any apparent interest in the fraud, is a problem

still more difficult to solve. Nothing however can be more certain than

the firm belief of this strange absurdity among them, for we had the

concurrent testimony of every Indian who was questioned about it, in its

favour. It seems to have taken its rise in the islands of Celebes and

Boutou, where many of the inhabitants keep crocodiles in their families;

but however that be, the opinion has spread over all the eastern

islands, even to Timor and Ceram, and westward as far as Java and

Sumatra, where, however, young crocodiles are, I believe, never kept.

These crocodile twins are called _Sudaras_, and I shall relate one of

the innumerable stories that were told us, in proof of their existence,

from ocular demonstration.

A young female slave, who was born and bred up among the English at

Bencoolen, and had learnt a little of the language, told Mr. Banks that

her father, when he was dying, acquainted her that he had a crocodile

for his _Sudara_, and solemnly charged her to give him meat when he

should be dead, telling her in what part of the river he was to be

found, and by what name he was to be called up. That, in pursuance of

her father’s instructions and command, she went to the river, and,

standing upon the bank, called out _Radja Pouti_, White King, upon which

a crocodile came to her out of the water, and ate from her hand the

provisions that she had brought him. When she was desired to describe

this paternal uncle, who in so strange a shape had taken up his dwelling

in the water, she said, that he was not like other crocodiles, but much

handsomer; that his body was spotted and his nose red; that he had

bracelets of gold upon his feet, and ear-rings of the same metal in his

ears. Mr. Banks heard this tale of ridiculous falsehood patiently to the

end, and then dismissed the girl, without reminding her, that a

crocodile with ears was as strange a monster as a dog with a cloven

foot. Some time after this, a servant, whom Mr. Banks had hired at

Batavia, and who was the son of a Dutchman by a Javanese woman, thought

fit to acquaint his master that he had seen a crocodile of the same

kind, which had also been seen by many others, both Dutchmen and Malays:

that being very young, it was but two feet long, and had bracelets of

gold upon its feet. There is no giving credit to these stories, said Mr.

Banks, for I was told the other day that a crocodile had ear-rings; and

you know that could not be true, because crocodiles have no ears. Ah,

Sir, said the man, these Sudara Oran are not like other crocodiles; they

have five toes upon each foot, a large tongue that fills their mouth,

and ears also, although they are indeed very small.

How much of what these people related they believed, cannot be known;

for there are no bounds to the credulity of ignorance and folly. In the

girl’s relation, however, there are some things in which she could not

be deceived; and therefore must have been guilty of wilful falsehood.

Her father might perhaps give her a charge to feed a crocodile, in

consequence of his believing that it was his Sudara; but its coming to

her out of the river, when she called it by the name of White King, and

taking the food she had brought it, must have been a fable of her own

invention; for this being false, it was impossible that she should

believe it to be true. The girl’s story, however, as well as that of the

man, is a strong proof that they both firmly believed the existence of

crocodiles that are Sudaras to men; and the girl’s fiction will be

easily accounted for, if we recollect, that the earnest desire which

every one feels to make others believe what he believes himself, is a

strong temptation to support it by unjustifiable evidence. And the

averring what is known to be false, in order to produce in others the

belief of what is thought to be true, must, upon the most charitable

principles, be imputed to many, otherwise venerable characters, through

whose hands the doctrines of Christianity passed for many ages in their

way to us, as the source of all the silly fables related of the Romish

saints, many of them not less extravagant and absurd than this story of

the White King, and all of them the invention of the first relater.

The Bougis, Macassars, and Boetons, are so firmly persuaded that they

have relations of the crocodile species in the rivers of their own

country, that they perform a periodical ceremony in remembrance of them.

Large parties of them go out in a boat, furnished with great plenty of

provisions, and all kinds of music, and row backwards and forwards, in

places where crocodiles and alligators are most common, singing and

weeping by turns, each invoking his kindred, till a crocodile appears,

when the music instantly stops, and provisions, betel, and tobacco, are

thrown into the water. By this civility to the species, they hope to

recommend themselves to their relations at home; and that it will be

accepted instead of offerings immediately to themselves, which it is not

in their power to pay.

In the next rank to the Indians stand the Chinese, who in this place are

numerous, but possess very little property; many of them live within the

walls, and keep shops. The fruit-sellers of Passar Pissang have been

mentioned already; but others have a rich show of European and Chinese

goods: the far greater part, however, live in a quarter by themselves,

without the walls, called Campang China. Many of them are carpenters,

joiners, smiths, taylors, slipper-makers, dyers of cotton, and

embroiderers; maintaining the character of industry that is universally

given of them: and some are scattered about the country, where they

cultivate gardens, sow rice and sugar, and keep cattle and buffaloes,

whose milk they bring daily to town.

There is nothing clean or dirty, honest or dishonest, provided there is

not too much danger of a halter, that the Chinese will not readily do

for money. But though they work with great diligence, and patiently

undergo any degree of labour; yet no sooner have they laid down their

tools than they begin to game, either at cards or dice, or some other

play among the multitude that they have invented, which are altogether

unknown in Europe: to this they apply with such eagerness, as scarcely

to allow time for the necessary refreshments of food and sleep; so that

it is as rare to see a Chinese idle, as it is to see a Dutchman or an

Indian employed.

In manners they are always civil, or rather obsequious; and in dress

they are remarkably neat and clean, to whatever rank of life they

belong. I shall not attempt a description either of their persons or

habits, for the better kind of China paper, which is now common in

England, exhibits a perfect representation of both, though perhaps with

some slight exaggerations approaching towards the caricatura.

In eating they are easily satisfied, though the few that are rich have

many savoury dishes. Rice, with a small proportion of flesh or fish, is

the food of the poor; and they have greatly the advantage of the

Mahometan Indians, whose religion forbids them to eat of many things

which they could most easily procure. The Chinese, on the contrary,

being under no restraint, eat, besides pork, dogs, cats, frogs, lizards,

serpents of many kinds, and a great variety of sea animals, which the

other inhabitants of this country do not consider as food: they eat also

many vegetables, which an European, except he was perishing with hunger,

would never touch.

The Chinese have a singular superstition with regard to the burial of

their dead; for they will upon no occasion open the ground a second

time, where a body has been interred. Their burying-grounds, therefore,

in the neighbourhood of Batavia, cover many hundred acres, and the

Dutch, grudging the waste of so much land, will not sell any for this

purpose but at the most exorbitant price. The Chinese, however, contrive

to raise the purchase-money, and afford another instance of the folly

and weakness of human nature, in transferring a regard for the living to

the dead, and making that the object of solicitude and expence, which

cannot receive the least benefit from either. Under the influence of

this universal prejudice, they take an uncommon method to preserve the

body entire, and prevent the remains of it from being mixed with the

earth that surrounds it. They inclose it in a large thick coffin of

wood, not made of planks joined together, but hollowed out of the solid

timber like a canoe; this being covered, and let down into the grave, is

surrounded with a coat of their mortar, called Chinam, about eight or

ten inches thick, which in a short time becomes as hard as a stone. The

relations of the deceased attend the funeral ceremony, with a

considerable number of women that are hired to weep: it might reasonably

be supposed that the hired appearance of sorrow could no more flatter

the living than benefit the dead: yet the appearance of sorrow is known

to be hired among people much more reflective and enlightened than the

Chinese. In Batavia, the law requires that every man should be buried

according to his rank, which is in no case dispensed with; so that, if

the deceased has not left sufficient to pay his debts, an officer takes

an inventory of what was in his possession when he died, and out of the

produce buries him in the manner prescribed, leaving only the overplus

to his creditors. Thus in many instances are the living sacrificed to

the dead, and money that should discharge a debt, or feed an orphan,

lavished in idle processions, or materials that are deposited in the

earth to rot.

Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this country is the

slaves; for by slaves the Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians, however

different in their rank or situation, are constantly attended: they are

purchased from Sumatra, Malacca, and almost all the eastern islands. The

natives of Java, very few of whom, as I have before observed, live in

the neighbourhood of Batavia, have an exemption from slavery under the

sanction of very severe penal laws, which I believe are seldom violated.

The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds sterling; but

girls, if they have beauty, sometimes fetch a hundred. They are a very

lazy set of people; but as they will do but little work, they are

content with a little victuals, subsisting altogether upon boiled rice,

and a small quantity of the cheapest fish. As they are natives of

different countries, they differ from each other extremely, both in

person and disposition. The African negroes, called here _Papua_, are

the worst, and consequently may be purchased for the least money: they

are all thieves, and all incorrigible. Next to these are the Bougis and

Macassars, both from the island of Celebes; these are lazy in the

highest degree, and though not so much addicted to theft as the negroes,

have a cruel and vindictive spirit, which renders them extremely

dangerous; especially as, to gratify their resentment, they will make no

scruple of sacrificing life. The best slaves, and consequently the

dearest, are procured from the island of Bali: the most beautiful women

from Nias, a small island on the coast of Sumatra; but they are of a

tender and delicate constitution, and soon fall a sacrifice to the

unwholesome air of Batavia. Besides these, there are Malays, and slaves

of several other denominations, whose particular characteristics I do

not remember.

These slaves are wholly in the power of their masters with respect to

any punishment that does not take away life; but if a slave dies in

consequence of punishment, though his death should not appear to have

been intended, the master is called to a severe account, and he is

generally condemned to suffer capitally. For this reason the master

seldom inflicts punishment upon the slave himself, but applies to an

officer called a Marineu, one of whom is stationed in every district.

The duty of the Marineu is to quell riots, and take offenders into

custody; but more particularly to apprehend runaway slaves, and punish

them for such crimes as the master, supported by proper evidence, lays

to their charge: the punishment however is not inflicted by the Marineu

in person, but by slaves who are bred up to the business. Men are

punished publicly, before the door of their master’s house; but women

within it. The punishment is by stripes, the number being proportioned

to the offence; and they are given with rods made of rattans, which are

split into slender twigs for the purpose, and fetch blood at every

stroke. A common punishment costs the master a rix-dollar, and a severe

one a ducatoon, about six shillings and eight-pence. The master is also

obliged to allow the slave three dubbelcheys, equal to about seven-pence

half-penny a week, as an encouragement, and to prevent his being under

temptations to steal, too strong to be resisted.

Concerning the government of this place I can say but little. We

observed, however, a remarkable subordination among the people. Every

man who is able to keep house has a certain specific rank acquired by

the length of his services to the company: the different ranks which are

thus acquired are distinguished by the ornaments of the coaches and the

dresses of the coachmen: some are obliged to ride in plain coaches, some

are allowed to paint them in different manners and degrees, and some to

gild them. The coachman also appears in clothes that are quite plain, or

more or less adorned with lace. The officer who presides here has the

title of governor-General of the Indies, and the Dutch governors of all

the other settlements are subordinate to him, and obliged to repair to

Batavia that he may pass their accounts. If they appear to have been

criminal, or even negligent, he punishes them by delay, and detains them

during pleasure, sometimes one year, sometimes two years, and sometimes

three: for they cannot quit the place till he gives them a dismission.

Next to the governor are the members of the council, called here _Edele

Heeren_, and by the corruption of the English, _Idoleers_. These

Idoleers take upon them so much state, that whoever meets them in a

carriage is expected to rise up and bow, then to drive on one side of

the road, and there stop till they are past: the same homage is required

also to their wives, and even their children; and it is commonly paid

them by the inhabitants. But some of our captains have thought so

slavish a mark of respect beneath the dignity which they derive from the

service of his Britannic Majesty, and have refused to pay it; yet, if

they were in a hired carriage, nothing could deter the coachman from

honouring the Dutch grandee at their expence, but the most peremptory

menace of immediate death.

Justice is administered here by a body of lawyers, who have ranks of

distinction among themselves. Concerning their proceedings in questions

of property, I know nothing; but their decisions in criminal cases seem

to be severe with respect to the natives, and lenient with respect to

their own people, in a criminal degree. A Christian always is indulged

with an opportunity of escaping before he is brought to a trial,

whatever may have been his offence; and if he is brought to a trial and

convicted, he is seldom punished with death: while the poor Indians, on

the contrary, are hanged, and broken upon the wheel, and even impaled

alive, without mercy.

The Malays and Chinese have judicial officers of their own, under the

denominations of captains and lieutenants, who determine in civil cases,

subject to an appeal to the Dutch court.

The taxes paid by these people to the Company are very considerable; and

that which is exacted of them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no

means the least. They are paid monthly, and to save the trouble and

charge of collecting them, a flag is hoisted upon the top of a house in

the middle of the town when a payment is due, and the Chinese have

experienced that it is their interest to repair thither with their money

without delay.

The money current here consists of ducats, worth a hundred and

thirty-two stivers; ducatoons, eighty stivers; imperial rix-dollars,

sixty; rupees of Batavia, thirty; schellings, six; double cheys, two

stivers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. Spanish dollars,

when we were here, were at five shillings and fivepence; and we were

told, that they were never lower than five shillings and fourpence, even

at the Company’s warehouse. For English guineas we could never get more

than nineteen shillings upon an average; for though the Chinese would

give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they would give no more

than seventeen shillings for those that were much worn.

It may, perhaps, be of some advantage to strangers to be told that there

are two kinds of coin here, of the same denomination, milled and

unmilled, and that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon is

worth eighty stivers; but an unmilled ducatoon is worth no more than

seventy-two. All accounts are kept in rix-dollars and stivers, which,

here at least, are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. The

rixdollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about four shillings and

sixpence English currency.

CHAP. XIII.

THE PASSAGE FROM BATAVIA TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; SOME ACCOUNT OF

PRINCE’S ISLAND AND ITS INHABITANTS, AND A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THEIR

LANGUAGE WITH THE MALAY AND JAVANESE.

ON Thursday the 27th of December, at six o’clock in the morning, we

weighed again and stood out to sea. After much delay by contrary winds,

we weathered Pulo Pare on the 29th, and stood in for the main; soon

after we fetched a small island under the main, in the midway between

Batavia and Bantam, called Maneater’s Island. The next day, we weathered

first Wapping Island, and then Pulo Babi. On the 31st, we stood over to

the Sumatra shore; and, on the morning of new-year’s day, 1771, we stood

over for the Java shore.

We continued our course as the wind permitted us till three o’clock in

the afternoon of the 5th, when we anchored under the south-east side of

Prince’s Island in eighteen fathom, in order to recruit our wood and

water, and procure refreshments for the sick, many of whom were now

become much worse than they were when we left Batavia. As soon as the

ship was secured, I went ashore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr.

Solander, and we were met upon the beach by some Indians, who carried us

immediately to a man, who, they said, was their king. After we had

exchanged a few compliments with his Majesty, we proceeded to business;

but, in settling the price of turtle, we could not agree: this however

did not discourage us, as we made no doubt but that we should buy them

at our own price in the morning. As soon as we parted, the Indians

dispersed, and we proceeded along the shore in search of a

watering-place. In this we were more successful; we found water very

conveniently situated; and, if a little care was taken in filling it, we

had reason to believe that it would prove good. Just as we were going

off, some Indians, who remained with a canoe upon the beach, sold us

three turtle; but exacted a promise of us that we should not tell the

king.

The next morning, while a party was employed in filling water, we

renewed our traffic for turtle: at first, the Indians dropped their

demands slowly, but about noon they agreed to take the price that we

offered, so that before night we had turtle in plenty: the three that we

had purchased the evening before, were in the mean time served to the

ship’s company, who, till the day before, had not once been served with

salt provisions from the time of our arrival at Savu, which was now near

four months. In the evening, Mr. Banks went to pay his respects to the

king, at his palace, in the middle of a rice-field, and though his

Majesty was busily employed in dressing his own supper, he received the

stranger very graciously.

The next day, the natives came down to the trading place, with fowls,

fish, monkies, small deer, and some vegetables, but no turtle; for they

said that we had bought them all the day before. The next day, however,

more turtle appeared at market, and some were brought down every day

afterwards, during our stay, though the whole, together, was not equal

to the quantity that we bought the day after our arrival.

On the 11th, Mr. Banks having learnt from the servant whom he had hired

at Batavia, that the Indians of this island had a town upon the shore,

at some distance to the westward, he determined to see it; with this

view he set out in the morning, accompanied by the second lieutenant,

and as he had some reason to think that his visit would not be agreeable

to the inhabitants, he told the people whom he met, as he was advancing

along the shore, that he was in search of plants, which indeed was also

true. In about two hours they arrived at a place where there were four

or five houses, and meeting with an old man, they ventured to make some

inquiries concerning the town. He said that it was far distant; but they

were not to be discouraged in their enterprize, and he, seeing them

proceed in their journey, joined company and went on with them. He

attempted several times to lead them out of the way, but without

success; and at length they came within sight of the houses. The old man

then entered cordially into their party, and conducted them into the

town. The name of it is Samadang; it consists of about four hundred

houses, and is divided by a river of brackish water into two parts, one

of which is called the old town, and the other the new. As soon as they

entered the old town, they met several Indians whom they had seen at the

trading-place, and one of them undertook to carry them over to the new

town, at the rate of twopence a head. When the bargain was made, two

very small canoes were produced, in which they embarked; the canoes

being placed along-side of each other, and held together, a precaution

which was absolutely necessary to prevent their oversetting, the

navigation was at length safely performed, though not without some

difficulty; and when they landed in the new town, the people received

them with great friendship, and showed them the houses of their kings

and principal people, which are in this district: a few of them however

were open, for at this time the people had taken up their residence in

the rice-grounds, to defend the crop against the birds and monkies, by

which it would otherwise have been destroyed. When their curiosity was

satisfied, they hired a large sailing boat for two rupees, four

shillings, which brought them back to the ship time enough to dine upon

one of the small deer, weighing only forty pounds, which had been bought

the day before, and proved to be very good and savoury meat.

We went on shore in the evening, to see how the people who were employed

in wooding and watering went on, and were informed that an axe had been

stolen. As the passing over this fault might encourage the commission of

others of the same kind, application was immediately made to the king,

who, after some altercation, promised that the axe should be restored in

the morning; and kept his word, for it was brought to us by a man who

pretended that the thief, being afraid of a discovery, had privately

brought it and left it at his house in the night.

We continued to purchase between two and three hundred weight of turtle

in a day, besides fowls and other necessaries; and, in the evening of

the 13th, having nearly completed our wood and water, Mr. Banks went

ashore to take leave of his Majesty, to whom he had made several

trifling presents, and at parting gave him two quires of paper, which he

graciously received. They had much conversation, in the course of which

his Majesty inquired, why the English did not touch there as they had

been used to do. Mr. Banks replied, that he supposed it was because they

found a deficiency of turtle, of which there not being enough to supply

one ship, many could not be expected. To supply this defect, he advised

his Majesty to breed cattle, buffaloes, and sheep, a measure which he

did not seem much inclined to adopt.

On the 14th we made ready to sail, having on board a good stock of

refreshments, which we purchased of the natives, consisting of turtle,

fowl, fish, two species of deer, one as big as a sheep, the other not

larger than a rabbit; with cocoa-nuts, plantains, limes, and other

vegetables. The deer however served only for present use, for we could

seldom keep one of them alive more than four-and-twenty hours after it

was on board. On our part, the trade was carried on chiefly with Spanish

dollars, the natives seeming to set little value upon any thing else; so

that our people, who had a general permission to trade, parted with old

shirts and other articles, which they were obliged to substitute for

money to great disadvantage. In the morning of the 15th, we weighed,

with a light breeze, at N. E. and stood out to sea. Java Head, from

which I took my departure, lies in latitude 6° 49ʹ S., longitude 253°

12ʹ W.

Prince’s Island, where we lay about ten days, is, in the Malay language,

called _Pulo Selan_; and, in the language of the inhabitants, _Pulo

Paneitan_. It is a small island, situated in the western mouth of the

Strait of Sunda. It is woody, and a very small part of it only has been

cleared: there is no remarkable hill upon it, yet the English call the

small eminence, which is just over the landing-place, the Pike. It was

formerly much frequented by the India ships of many nations, but

especially those of England, which of late have forsaken it, as it is

said, because the water is bad; and touch either at North Island, a

small island that lies on the coast of Sumatra, without the east

entrance of the Strait, or at Mew Bay, which lies only a few leagues

from Prince’s Island, at neither of which places any considerable

quantity of other refreshments can be procured. Prince’s Island is, upon

the whole, certainly more eligible than either of them; and though the

water is brackish, if it is filled at the lower part of the brook, yet

higher up it will be found excellent.

The first and second, and perhaps the third ship that comes in the

season, may be tolerably supplied with turtle; but those that come

afterwards must be content with small ones. Those that we bought were of

the green kind, and at an average cost us about a half-penny or three

farthings a pound. We were much disappointed to find them neither fat

nor well flavoured; and we imputed it to their having been long kept in

crawls or pens of brackish water, without food. The fowls are large, and

we bought a dozen of them for a Spanish dollar, which is above fivepence

a piece: the small deer cost us twopence a piece, and the larger, of

which two only were brought down, a rupee. Many kinds of fish are to be

had here, which the natives sell by hand, and we found them tolerably

cheap. Cocoa-nuts we bought at the rate of a hundred for a dollar, if

they were picked; and if they were taken promiscously, one hundred and

thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty; we procured also some

pine-apples, water-melons, jaccas, and pumkins; besides rice, the

greater part of which was of the mountain-kind, that grows on dry land;

yams, and several other vegetables, at a very reasonable rate.

The inhabitants are Javenese, whose raja is subject to the sultan of

Bantam. Their customs are very similar to those of the Indians about

Batavia; but they seem to be more jealous of their women, for we never

saw any of them during all the time we were there, except one by chance

in the woods, as she was running away to hide herself. They profess the

Mahometan religion, but I believe there is not a mosque in the whole

island: we were among them during the fast, which the Turks call

_Ramadan_, which they seemed to keep with great rigour, for not one of

them would touch a morsel of victuals, or even chew their betel till

sun-set.

Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except

the addition of the nuts of the palm, called _Cycas circinalis_, with

which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick,

and some of our hogs poisoned.

Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what

means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told us,

that they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the sun,

then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards,

pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we

learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when

they mix them with their rice to make it go farther.

The houses of their town are built upon piles, or pillars, four or five

feet above the ground: upon these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which

are placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave a free

passage for the air from below: the walls also are of bamboo, which are

interwoven, hurdlewise, with small sticks, that are fastened

perpendicularly to the beams which form the frame of the building: it

has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with palm leaves, that

neither the sun nor the rain can find entrance. The ground over which

this building is erected, is an oblong square. In the middle of one side

is the door, and in the middle between that and the end of the house,

towards the left hand, is a window: a partition runs out from each end

towards the middle, which, if continued, would divide the whole floor

into two equal parts, longitudinally, but they do not meet in the

middle, so that an opening is left over-against the door; each end of

the house, therefore, to the right and left of the door, is divided into

two rooms, like stalls in a stable, all open towards the passage from

the door to the wall on the opposite side: in that next the door to the

left hand, the children sleep; that opposite to it, on the right hand,

is allotted to strangers; the master and his wife sleep in the inner

room on the left hand, and that opposite to it is the kitchen. There is

no difference between the houses of the poor and the rich, but in the

size; except that the royal palace, and the house of a man, whose name

is _Gundang_, the next in riches and influence to the king, is walled

with boards instead of being wattled with sticks and bamboo.

As the people are obliged to abandon the town, and live in the

rice-fields at certain seasons, to secure their crops from the birds and

the monkies, they have occasional houses there for their accommodation.

They are exactly the same as the houses in the town, except that they

are smaller, and are elevated eight or ten feet above the ground instead

of four.

The disposition of the people, as far as we could discover it, is good.

They dealt with us very honestly, except, like all other Indians, and

the itinerant retailers of fish in London, they asked sometimes twice,

and sometimes thrice as much for their commodities as they would take.

As what they brought to market, belonged, in different proportions, to a

considerable number of the natives, and it would have been difficult to

purchase it in separate lots, they found out a very easy expedient with

which every one was satisfied: they put all that was bought of one kind,

as plantains, or cocoa-nuts, together, and when we had agreed for the

heap, they divided the money that was paid for it, among those of whose

separate property it consisted, in a proportion corresponding with their

contributions. Sometimes, indeed, they changed our money, giving us 240

doits, amounting to five shillings for a Spanish dollar, and ninety-six,

amounting to two shillings, for a Bengal rupee.

They all speak the Malay language, though they have a language of their

own, different both from the Malay and the Javanese. Their own language

they call _Catta Gunung_, the language of the mountains; and they say

that it is spoken upon the mountains of Java, whence their tribe

originally migrated, first to Mew Bay, and then to their present

station, being driven from their first settlement by tygers, which they

found too numerous to subdue. I have already observed, that several

languages are spoken by the native Javenese, in different parts of their

island; but when I say that the language of these people is different

from the Javenese, I mean that it is different from the language which

is spoken at Samarang, a place that is distant only one day’s journey

from the residence of the emperor of Java. The following is a list of

corresponding words in the languages of Prince’s Island, Java, and

Malacca.

English. _Prince’s _Javanese._ _Malay._

Island._

_A man_, Jalma, Oong Lanang, Oran Lacki Lacki.

_A woman_, Becang, Oong Wadong, Parampuan.

_A child_, Oroculatacke, Lari, Anack.

_The head_, Holo, Undass, Capalla.

_The nose_, Erung, Erung, Edung.

_The eyes_, Mata, Moto, Mata.

_The ears_, Chole, Cuping, Cuping.

_The teeth_, Cutock, Untu, Ghigi.

_The belly_, Beatung, Wuttong, Prot.

_The backside_, Serit, Celit, Pantat.

_The thigh_, Pimping, Poopoo, Paha.

_The knee_, Hullootoor, Duncul, Lontour.

_The leg_, Metis, Sickil, Kauki.

_A nail_, Cucu, Cucu, Cucu.

_A hand_, Langan, Tangan, Tangan.

_A finger_, Ramo Langan, Jari, Jaring.

In this specimen of the languages of places so near to each other, the

names of different parts of the body are chosen, because they are easily

obtained from people whose language is utterly unknown, and because they

are more likely to be part of the original stamen of the language, than

any other, as types of the first objects to which they would give names.

It is very remarkable that the Malay, the Javanese, and the Prince’s

Island language, have words, which, if not exactly similar to the

corresponding words in the language of the islands in the South Seas,

are manifestly derived from the same source, as will appear from the

following table:

English. _South Sea._ _Malay._ _Javanese._ _Prince’s

Isl._

_An eye_, Matta, Mata, Moto, Mata.

_To eat_, Maa, Macan, Mangan.

_To drink_, Einu, Menum, Gnumbe.

_To kill_, Matte, Matte, Matte.

_A louse_, Outou, Coutou.

_Rain_, Euwa, Udian, Udan.

_Bamboo cane_, Owhe, Awe.

_A breast_, Eu, Sousou, Sousou.

_A bird_, Mannu, Mannu, Mannuck.

_A fish_, Eyca, Ican, Iwa.

_The foot_, Tapao, Tapaan.

_A lobster_, Tooura, Udang, Urang.

_Yams_, Eufwhe, Ubi, Urve.

_To bury_, Etannou, Tannam, Tandour.

_A moschito_, Enammou, Gnammuck.

_To scratch_, Hearu, Garru, Garu.

_Coccos roots_, Taro, Tallas, Talas.

_In-land_, Uta, Utan.

This similitude is particularly remarkable in the words expressing

number, which, at first sight, seems to be no inconsiderable proof that

the science at least of these different people has a common root. But

the names of numbers in the island of Madagascar, are, in some

instances, similar to all these, which is a problem still more difficult

to solve. That the names of numbers, in particular, are in a manner

common to all these countries, will appear from the following

comparative table, which Mr. Banks drew up, with the assistance of a

negro slave, born at Madagascar, who was on board an English ship at

Batavia, and sent to him to gratify his curiosity on this subject.

English. _S. Sea _Malay._ _Javanese._ _Prince’s _Madagas._

Islands._ Isl._

_One_, Tahie, Satou, Sigi, Hegie, Isse.

_Two_, Rua, Dua, Lorou, Dua, Rua.

_Three_, Torou, Tiga, Tullu, Tollu, Tellou.

_Four_, Haa, Ampat, Pappat, Opat, Effats.

_Five_, Reina, Lima, Limo, Limah, Limi.

_Six_, Wheney, Annam, Nunnam, Gunnap, Ene.

_Seven_, Hetu, Tudju, Petu, Tudju, Titou.

_Eight_, Waru, Delapau, Wolo, Delapan, Walon.

_Nine_, Iva, Sembilan, Songo, Salapan, Sivi.

_Ten_, Ahouroa, Sapoulou, Sapoulou, Sapoulou, Tourou.

In the language of Madagascar, there are other words similar to words of

the same import in the Malay. The nose in Malay is called _Erung_, at

Madagascar _Ourou_; _Lida_, the tongue, is _Lala_; _Tangan_, the hand,

is _Tang_; and _Tanna_, the ground, is _Taan_.

From the similitude between the language of the Eastern Indies, and the

islands of the South Sea, conjectures may be formed with respect to the

peopling those countries, which cannot easily be referred to Madagascar.

The inhabitants of Java and Madagascar appear to be a different race;

the Javanese is of an olive complexion, and has long hair; the native of

Madagascar is black, and his head is not covered with hair, but wool;

and yet perhaps this will not conclude against their having common

ancestors so strongly as at first appears. It does not seem less

difficult to account for the personal difference between a native of

England and France, as an effect of mere local situation, than for the

difference between the natives of Java and Madagascar; yet it has never

been supposed, that England and France were not peopled from common

ancestors. If two natives of England marry in their own country, and

afterwards remove to our settlements in the West Indies, the children

that are conceived and born there will have the complexion and cast of

countenance that distinguish the Creole; if they return, the children

conceived and born afterwards, will have no such characteristics. If it

be said that the mother’s mind being impressed with different external

objects, impresses corresponding features and complexion upon the child

during her pregnancy, it will be as difficult to refer the effect into

this cause, upon mere physical principles, as into the other; for it can

no more be shown how a mere idea, conceived in the mother’s imagination,

can change the corporeal form of her infant, than how its form can be

changed by mere local situation. We know that people within the small

circle of Great Britain and Ireland, who are born at the distance of two

or three hundred miles from each other, will be distinguished by the

Scotch face, the Welsh face, and the Irish face; may we not then

reasonably suppose, that there are in nature qualities which act

powerfully as efficient causes, and yet are not cognizable by any of the

five modes of perception which we call senses? A deaf man, who sees the

string of a harpsichord vibrate, when a corresponding tone is produced

by blowing into a flute at a distance, will see an effect of which he

can no more conceive the cause to exist in the blowing air into the

flute, than we can conceive the cause of the personal difference of the

various inhabitants of the globe to exist in mere local situation; nor

can he any more form an idea of the cause itself in one case, than we

can in the other: what happens to him then, in consequence of having but

four senses instead of five, may, with respect to many phenomena of

nature, happen to us, in consequence of having but five senses instead

of six, or any greater number.

Possibly, however, the learning of ancient Egypt might run in two

courses, one through Africa, and the other through Asia, disseminating

the same words in each, especially terms of number, which might thus

become part of the language of people who never had any communication

with each other.

We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds

of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the

most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water

which we had taken in at Prince’s Island should have had any share in

our sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the

ship between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr.

Banks was among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his

life. We were very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was

nothing better than an hospital, in which those that were able to go

about, were too few to attend the sick, who were confined to their

hammocks; and we had almost every night a dead body to commit to the

sea. In the course of about six weeks, we buried Mr. Sporing, a

gentleman who was in Mr. Banks’s retinue, Mr. Parkinson, his

natural-history painter, Mr. Green the astronomer, the boatswain, the

carpenter and his mate, Mr. Monkhouse the midshipman, who had fothered

the ship after she had been stranded on the coast of New Holland, our

old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the ship’s cook, the corporal of

the marines, two of the carpenter’s crew, a midshipman, and nine seamen;

in all three-and-twenty persons, besides the seven that we buried at

Batavia.

CHAP. XIV.

OUR ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; SOME REMARKS ON THE RUN FROM JAVA

HEAD TO THAT PLACE; A DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPE, AND OF SAINT HELENA; WITH

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HOTTENTOTS, AND THE RETURN OF THE SHIP TO ENGLAND.

ON Friday the 15th of March, about ten o’clock in the morning, we

anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in seven fathom, with an ouzey

bottom. The west point of the bay, called the Lion’s Tail, bore W. N. W.

and the castle S. W., distant about a mile and a half. I immediately

waited upon the Governor, who told me that I should have every thing the

country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place ashore for

the sick, which were not a few; and a house was soon found, where it was

agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two shillings

a-head per day.

Our run from Java Head, to this place, afforded very few subjects of

remark that can be of use to future navigators; such as occurred,

however, I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we

got the general south-east trade-wind, during which time, we did not

advance above 5° to the southward, and 3° to the west, having variable

light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry weather, and an

unwholesome air, occasioned probably by the load of vapours which the

eastern trade-wind, and westerly monsoons, bring into these latitudes,

both which blow in these seas at the time of year when we happened to be

there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10° or 12° S., and the

westerly as far as 6° or 8°; in the intermediate space the winds are

variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome; it certainly

aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and

particularly the flux, which was not in the least degree checked by any

medicine, so that whoever was seized with it, considered himself as a

dead man; but we had no sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to

feel its salutary effects: we buried indeed several of our people

afterwards, but they were such as had been taken on board in a state so

low and feeble, that there was scarcely a possibility of their recovery.

At first we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have been

brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince’s Island,

or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least

reason to believe that this suspicion was well grounded, for all the

ships that came from Batavia at the same season, suffered in the same

degree, and some of them even more severely, though none of them touched

at Prince’s island in their way.

A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies about the ship for several

nights successively, and as these birds are known to roost every night

on shore, we thought them an indication that some island was not far

distant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which, in different

charts, is very differently laid down both in name and situation.

The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java is about 3° W.,

and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track

of ships to the longitude of 288° W., latitude 22° S., after which it

increased apace, so that in longitude 295°, latitude 23°, the variation

was 10° 20ʹ W.: in seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude,

it increased two degrees; in the same space farther to the west, it

increased five degrees: in latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24° 20ʹ;

in latitude 29°, longitude 317°, it was 26° 10ʹ; and was then stationary

for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but in latitude

34°, longitude 333°, we observed it twice to be 28-¼° W., and this was

its greatest variation, for in latitude 35-½°, longitude 337°, it was

24°, and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape Anguillas, it

was 22° 30ʹ, and in Table Bay 20° 30ʹ W.

As to currents it did not appear that they were at all considerable,

till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagascar;

for, after we had made 52° of longitude from Java Head, we found, by

observation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it

was the same when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing

partly to a current setting to the westward, partly to our not making

proper allowances for the setting of the sea before which we run, and

perhaps to an error in the assumed longitude of Java Head. If that

longitude is erroneous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of

the charts of which I made use in reducing the longitude from Batavia to

that place, for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia

is well determined. After we had passed the longitude of 307°, the

effects of the westerly currents began to be considerable; for in three

days, our error in longitude was 1° 5ʹ: the velocity of the current kept

increasing, as we proceeded to the westward, in so much that, for five

days successively after we made the land, we were driven to the S. W. or

S. W. by W., not less than twenty leagues a day; and this continued till

we were within sixty or seventy leagues of the Cape, where the current

set sometimes one way, and sometimes the other, though inclining rather

to the westward.

After the boobies had left us, we saw no more birds till we got nearly

abreast of Madagascar, where, in latitude 27-¾° S., we saw an albatross,

and after that time we saw them every day in great numbers, with birds

of several other sorts, particularly one about as big as a duck, of a

very dark brown colour with a yellowish bill. These birds became more

numerous as we approached the shore, and as soon as we got into

soundings, we saw gannets, which we continued to see as long as we were

upon the bank which stretches off Anguillas to the distance of forty

leagues, and extends along the shore to the eastward, from Cape False,

according to some charts, one hundred and sixty leagues. The real extent

of this bank is not exactly known; it is however useful as a direction

to shipping when to haul in, in order to make the land.

While we lay here, the Houghton Indiaman sailed for England, who, during

her stay in India, lost by sickness between thirty and forty men; and

when she left the Cape had many in a helpless condition with the scurvy.

Other ships suffered in the same proportion, who had been little more

than twelve months absent from England; our sufferings therefore were

comparatively light, considering that we had been absent near three

times as long.

Having lain here to recover the sick, procure stores, and perform

several necessary operations upon the ship and rigging, till the 13th of

April, I then got all the sick on board, several of whom were still in a

dangerous state, and having taken leave of the governor, I unmoored the

next morning, and got ready to sail.

The Cape of Good Hope has been so often described, and is so well known

in Europe, that I shall mention only a few particulars, which, in other

relations, are omitted or misrepresented.

Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, no country that

we saw during the voyage makes a more forlorn appearance, or is in

reality a more sterile desert. The land over the Cape, which constitutes

the peninsula formed by Table Bay on the north, and False Bay on the

south, consists of high mountains, altogether naked and desolate: the

land behind these to the east, which may be considered as the isthmus,

is a plain of vast extent, consisting almost wholly of a light kind of

sea-sand, which produces nothing but heath, and is utterly incapable of

cultivation. All the spots that will admit of improvement, which

together bear about the same proportion to the whole as one to one

thousand, are laid out in vineyards, orchards, and kitchen-grounds; and

most of these little spots lie at a considerable distance from each

other. There is also the greatest reason to believe, that, in the

interior parts of this country, that which is capable of cultivation

does not bear a greater proportion to that which is incorrigibly barren;

for the Dutch told us, that they had settlements eight-and-twenty days’

journey up the country, a distance equal to at least nine hundred miles,

from which they bring provisions to the Cape by land; so that it seems

reasonable to conclude that provisions are not to be had within a less

compass. While we were at the Cape, a farmer came thither from the

country, at the distance of fifteen days’ journey, and brought his young

children with him. We were surprised at this, and asked him, if it would

not have been better to have left them with his next neighbour.

Neighbour! said the man, I have no neighbour within less than five days’

journey of me. Surely the country must be deplorably barren in which

those who settle only to raise provisions for a market, are dispersed at

such distances from each other. That the country is every where

destitute of wood appears to demonstration; for timber and planks are

imported from Batavia, and fuel is almost as dear as food. We saw no

tree, except in plantations near the town, that was six feet high; and

the stems, that were not thicker than a man’s thumb, had roots as thick

as an arm or a leg; such is the influence of the winds here to the

disadvantage of vegetation, setting the sterility of the soil out of the

question.

The only town which the Dutch have built here is, from its situation,

called Cape Town, and consists of about a thousand houses, neatly built

of brick, and in general whited on the outside; they are, however,

covered only with thatch, for the violence of the south east-winds would

render any other roof inconvenient and dangerous. The streets are broad

and commodious, all crossing each other at right angles. In the

principal street, there is a canal, on each side of which is planted a

row of oaks, that have flourished tolerably well, and yield an agreeable

shade: there is a canal also in one other part of the town, but the

slope of the ground in the course of both is so great, that they are

furnished with flood-gates, or locks, at intervals of little more than

fifty yards.

A much greater proportion of the inhabitants are Dutch in this place

than in Batavia; and as the town is supported principally by

entertaining strangers, and supplying them with necessaries, every man,

to a certain degree, imitates the manners and customs of the nation with

which he is chiefly concerned. The ladies, however, are so faithful to

the mode of their country, that not one of them will stir without a

chaudpied or chauffet, which is carried by a servant, that it may be

ready to place under her feet whenever she shall sit down. This practice

is the more remarkable, as very few of these chauffets have fire in

them, which indeed the climate renders unnecessary.

The women, in general, are very handsome; they have fine clear skins,

and a bloom of colour that indicates a purity of constitution, and high

health. They make the best wives in the world, both as mistresses of a

family and mothers; and there is scarcely a house that does not swarm

with children.

The air is salutary in a high degree; so that those who bring diseases

hither from Europe, generally recover perfect health in a short time;

but the diseases that are brought from India are not so certainly cured.

Notwithstanding the natural sterility of the climate, industry has

supplied this place with all the necessaries, and even the luxuries of

life, in the greatest profusion. The beef and mutton are excellent,

though the cattle and sheep are natives of the country; the cattle are

lighter than ours, more neatly made, and have horns that spread to a

much wider extent. The sheep are clothed with a substance between wool

and hair, and have tails of an enormous size; we saw some that weighed

twelve pounds, and were told that there were many much larger. Good

butter is made of the milk of the cows, but the cheese is very much

inferior to our own. Here are goats, but they are never eaten, hogs, and

a variety of poultry. Hares are also found here, exactly like those of

Europe; antelopes of many kinds, quails of two sorts, and bustards,

which are well flavoured, but not juicy. The fields produce European

wheat and barley, and the gardens European vegetables, and fruit of all

kinds, besides plantains, guavas, jambu, and some other Indian fruits,

but these are not in perfection; the plantains, in particular, are very

bad, and the guavas no larger than gooseberries. The vineyards also

produce wine of various sorts, but not equal to those of Europe, except

the Constantia, which is made genuine only at one vineyard, about ten

miles distant from the town. There is another vineyard near it, where

wine is made that is called by the same name, but it is greatly

inferior.

The common method in which strangers live here, is to lodge and board

with some of the inhabitants, many of whose houses are always open for

their reception: the rates are from five shillings to two shillings a

day, for which all necessaries are found. Coaches may be hired at

four-and-twenty shillings a day, and horses at six shillings; but the

country affords very little temptation to use them. There are no public

entertainments; and those that are private, to which strangers of the

rank of gentlemen are always admitted, were suspended while we were

there by the breaking out of the measles.

At the farther end of the High-street, the Company have a garden, which

is about two-thirds of an English mile long; the whole is divided by

walks that intersect each other at right angles, and are planted with

oaks that are clipt into wall-hedges, except in the centre walk, where

they are suffered to grow to their full size, and afford an agreeable

shade, which is the more welcome, as, except the plantations by the

sides of the two canals, there is not a single tree that would serve

even for a shepherd’s bush, within many miles of the town. The greater

part of this garden is kitchen-ground; but two small squares are

allotted to botanical plants, which did not appear to be so numerous by

one half as they were when Oldenland wrote his catalogue. At the farther

end of the garden is a menagerie, in which there are many birds and

beasts that are never seen in Europe; particularly a beast called by the

Hottentots _Coe doe_, which is as large as a horse, and has the fine

spiral horns which are sometimes seen in private and public collections

of curiosities.

Of the natives of this country, we could learn but little, except from

report; for there were none of their habitations, where alone they

retain their original customs, within less than four days’ journey from

the town; those that we saw at the Cape were all servants to Dutch

farmers, whose cattle they take care of, and are employed in other

drudgery of the meanest kind. These are in general of a slim make, and

rather lean than plump, but remarkably strong, nimble, and active. Their

size is nearly the same with that of Europeans, and we saw some that

were six feet high; their eyes are dull and without expression; their

skins are of the colour of soot, but that is in a great measure caused

by the dirt, which is so wrought into the grain that it cannot be

distinguished from complexion; for I believe they never wash any part of

their bodies. Their hair curls strongly, not like a negroe’s, but falls

in ringlets about seven or eight inches long. Their clothing consists of

a skin, generally that of a sheep, thrown over their shoulders; besides

which, the men wear a small pouch in the middle of the waist, and the

women, a broad leather flap, both which hang from a girdle or belt that

is adorned with beads and small pieces of copper. Both men and women

wear necklaces, and sometimes bracelets of beads; and the women wear

rings of hard leather round their ancles, to defend them from the

thorns, with which their country every where abounds: some of them have

a sandal, made of wood or bark; but the greater part of them are unshod.

To a European, their language appears to be scarcely articulate; besides

which it is distinguished by a very remarkable singularity. At very

frequent intervals, while they are speaking, they cluck with the tongue

against the roof of the mouth: these clucks do not appear to have any

meaning, but rather to divide what they say into sentences. Most of

these Hottentots speak Dutch, without any peculiarity of pronunciation.

They are all modest, even to sheepishness; for it was not without the

greatest difficulty that we could persuade any of them to dance, or even

to speak in their own language to each other, in our presence. We did

however both see them dance, and hear them sing; their dances are, by

turns, active and sluggish to excess; sometimes consisting of quick and

violent motions, with strange distortions of the body, and unnatural

leaps backwards and forwards, with the legs crossing each other; and

being sometimes so spiritless that the dancer only strikes the ground

first with one foot and then with the other, neither changing place nor

moving any other part of his body: the songs also are alternately to

quick and slow movements, in the same extremes as the dance.

We made many enquiries concerning these people of the Dutch, and the

following particulars are related upon the credit of their report.

Within the boundaries of the Dutch settlements, there are several

nations of these people, who very much differ from each other in their

customs and manner of life: all, however, are friendly and peaceable,

except one clan that is settled to the eastward, which the Dutch call

_Bosch men_, and these live entirely by plunder, or rather by theft; for

they never attack their neighbours openly, but steal the cattle

privately in the night. They are armed however to defend themselves, if

they happen to be detected, with lances or assagays, and arrows, which

they know how to poison by various ways, some with the juice of herbs,

and some with the venom of the serpent, called _Cobra di Capelo_; in the

hands of these people a stone also is a very formidable weapon, for they

can throw it with such force and exactness as repeatedly to hit a dollar

at the distance of a hundred paces. As a defence against these

freebooters, the other Indians train up bulls, which they place round

their towns in the night, and which, upon the approach of either man or

beast, will assemble and oppose them, till they hear the voice of their

masters encouraging them to fight, or calling them off, which they obey

with the same docility as a dog.

Some nations have the art of melting and preparing copper, which is

found among them, probably native; and of this they make broad plates,

which they wear as ornaments upon their foreheads. Some of them also

know how to harden bits of iron, which they procure from the Dutch, and

form into knives, so as to give them a temper superior to that of any

they can buy.

The chiefs, many of whom are possessors of very numerous herds of

cattle, are generally clad in the skins of lions, tygers, or zebras, to

which they add fringes, and other ornaments, in a very good taste. Both

sexes frequently anoint the body with grease, but never use any that is

rancid or fœtid, if fresh can be had. Mutton suet and butter are

generally used for this purpose; butter is preferred, which they make by

shaking the milk in a bag made of the skin of some beast.

We were told that the priest certainly gives the nuptial benediction, by

sprinkling the bride and bridegroom with his urine. But the Dutch

universally declared that the women never wrapped the entrails of sheep

round their legs, as they have been said to do, and afterwards make them

part of their food. Semicastration was also absolutely denied to be

general; but it was acknowledged that some among the particular nation

which knew how to melt copper had suffered that operation, who were said

to be the best warriors, and particularly to excel in the art of

throwing stones.

We were very desirous to determine the great question among natural

historians, whether the women of this country have or have not that

fleshy flap or apron which has been called the _Sinus pudoris_, and what

we learnt I shall relate. Many of the Dutch and Malays, who said they

had received favours from Hottentot women, positively denied its

existence; but a physician of the place declared that he had cured many

hundreds of venereal complaints, and never saw one without two fleshy,

or rather skinny appendages, proceeding from the upper part of the

_labia_, in appearance somewhat resembling the teats of a cow, but flat;

they hung down, he said, before the _pudendum_, and were in different

subjects of different lengths, in some not more than half an inch, in

others, three or four inches: these he imagined to be what some writers

have exaggerated into a flap, or apron, hanging down from the bottom of

the abdomen, of sufficient extent to render an artificial covering of

the neighbouring parts unnecessary.

This much for the country, its productions, and inhabitants. The bay is

large, safe, and commodious; it lies open indeed to the north-west

winds, but they seldom blow hard; yet as they sometimes send in a great

sea, the ships moor N. E. and S. W., so as to have an open hawser with

north-west winds: the south-east winds blow frequently with great

violence, but as the direction is right out of the bay, they are not

dangerous. Near the town a wharf of wood is run out to a proper distance

for the convenience of landing and shipping goods. To this wharf water

is conveyed in pipes, from which several boats may fill water at the

same time; and several large boats or hoys are kept by the Company to

carry stores and provisions to and from the shipping in the harbour. The

bay is defended by a square fort, situated close to the beach on the

east side of the town, and by several outworks and batteries extending

along the shore, as well on this side of the town as the other; but they

are so situated as to be cannonaded by shipping, and are in a manner

defenceless against an enemy of any force by land. The garrison consists

of eight hundred regular troops, besides militia of the country, in

which is comprehended every man able to bear arms. They have

contrivances to alarm the whole country by signals in a very short time,

and the militia is then to repair immediately to the town.

The French at Mauritius are supplied from this place with salted beef,

biscuit, flour, and wine: the provisions for which the French contracted

this year were 500,000 lb. weight of salt beef, 400,000 lb. of flour,

400,000 lb. of biscuit, and 1,200 leagers of wine.

On the morning of the 14th, we weighed and stood out of the bay; and at

five in the evening anchored under Penquin, or Robin island: we lay here

all night, and as I could not sail in the morning for want of wind, I

sent a boat to the island for a few trifling articles which we had

forgot to take in at the Cape. But as soon as the boat came near the

shore, the Dutch hailed her, and warned the people not to land, at their

peril, bringing down at the same time six men armed with muskets, who

paraded upon the beach. The officer who commanded the boat, not thinking

it worth while to risk the lives of the people on board for the sake of

a few cabbages, which were all we wanted, returned to the ship. At first

we were at a loss to account for our repulse, but we afterwards

recollected, that to this island the Dutch at the Cape banish such

criminals as are not thought worthy of death, for a certain number of

years, proportioned to the offence; and employ them as slaves in digging

lime-stone, which, though scarce upon the continent, is plenty here: and

that a Danish ship, which by sickness had lost great part of her crew,

and had been refused assistance at the cape, came down to this island,

and sending her boat ashore, secured the guard, and took on board as

many of the criminals as she thought proper to navigate her home: we

concluded therefore that the Dutch, to prevent the rescue of their

criminals in time to come, had given order to their people here to

suffer no boat of any foreign nation to come ashore.

On the 25th, at three o’clock in the afternoon, we weighed, with a light

breeze at S. E., and put to sea. About an hour afterwards, we lost our

master, Mr. Robert Mollineux, a young man of good parts, but unhappily

given up to intemperance, which brought on disorders that put an end to

his life.

We proceeded in our voyage homeward without any remarkable incident; and

in the morning of the 29th we crossed our first meridian, having

circumnavigated the globe in the direction from east to west, and

consequently lost a day, for which we made an allowance at Batavia.

At day-break, on the first of May, we saw the island of Saint Helena;

and at noon, we anchored in the road before James’s fort.

We staid here till the 4th, to refresh, and Mr. Banks improved the time

in making the complete circuit of the island, and visiting the most

remarkable places upon it.

It is situated as it were in the middle of the vast Atlantic Ocean,

being four hundred leagues distant from the coast of Africa, and six

hundred from that of America. It is the summit of an immense mountain

rising out of the sea, which, at a little distance all round it, is of

an unfathomable depth, and is no more than twelve leagues long, and six

broad.

The seat of volcanoes has, without exception, been found to be the

highest part of the countries in which they are found. Ætna and Vesuvius

have no land higher than themselves, in their neighbourhood; Hecla is

the highest hill in Iceland: volcanoes are frequent in the highest part

of the Andes in South America; and the pike of Teneriffe is known to be

the covering of subterraneous fire: these are still burning, but there

are innumerable other mountains which bear evident marks of fire that is

now extinct, and has been so from the time of our earliest traditions:

among these is Saint Helena, where the inequalities of the ground, in

its external surface, are manifestly the effect of the sinking of the

earth, for the opposite ridges, though separated always by deep, and

sometimes by broad valleys, are exactly similar both in appearance and

direction; and that the sinking of the earth in these parts, was caused

by subterraneous fire, is equally manifest from the stones; for some of

them, especially those in the bottom of the valleys, are burnt almost to

a cinder: in some there are small bubbles, like those that are seen in

glass which has been urged almost to fusion, and some, though at first

sight they do not appear to have been exposed to the action of great

heat, will be found, upon a closer inspection, to contain small pieces

of extraneous bodies, particularly mundick, which have yielded to the

power of fire, though it was not sufficient to alter the appearance of

the stone which contained them.

It appeared, as we approached it on the windward side, like a rude heap

of rocks, bounded by precipices of amazing height, and consisting of a

kind of half friable stone, which shows not the least sign of

vegetation; nor is it more promising upon a nearer view: in sailing

along the shore, we came so near the huge cliffs, that they seemed to

overhang the ship, and the tremendous effect of their giving way, made

us almost fear the event: at length we opened a valley, called Chappel

Valley, which resembles a large trench; and in this valley we discovered

the town. The bottom of it is slightly covered with herbage, but the

sides are as naked as the cliffs that are next the sea. Such is the

first appearance of the island in its present cultivated state, and the

first hills must be passed before the valleys look green, or the country

displays any other marks of fertility.

The town stands just by the sea-side, and the far greater part of the

houses are ill built; the church, which originally was a mean structure,

is in ruins, and the market-house is nearly in the same condition.

The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they are not permitted by

the East India Company, to whom the island belongs, to carry on any

trade or commerce on their own account, subsist wholly by supplying such

ships as touch at the place with refreshments, which, however, they do

not provide in proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the

temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by cultivation, to

produce all the fruits and vegetables both of Europe and India. This

island, indeed, small as it is, enjoys the different advantages of

different climates, for the cabbage-trees which grow upon the highest

ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where

the red-wood and gum-wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the

ridges above, and neither of the three are to be found in the valleys,

which, in general, are covered with European plants, and the more common

ones of India. Here are a few horses, but they are kept only for the

saddle, so that all labour is performed by slaves; nor are they

furnished with any of the various machines which art has invented to

facilitate their task. The ground is not every where too steep for a

cart, and where it is, the wheel-barrow might be used with great

advantage, yet there is no wheel-barrow in the whole island; every thing

is conveyed from place to place by the slaves, and they are not

furnished even with the simple convenience of a porter’s knot, but carry

their burden upon their heads. They are indeed very numerous, and are

brought to almost every part of the world, but they appeared to be a

miserable race, worn out partly by excessive labour, and partly by ill

usage, of which they frequently complained; and I am sorry to say, that

instances of wanton cruelty are much more frequent among my countrymen

here, than among the Dutch, who are, and perhaps not without reason,

generally reproached with want of humanity at Batavia and the Cape.

Among the native products of this island, which are not numerous, must

be reckoned ebony, though the trees are now nearly extinct, and are not

remembered to have been plenty: pieces of the wood are frequently found

in the valleys, of a fine black colour, and a hardness almost equal to

iron: these pieces, however, are always so short and crooked, that no

use can be made of them. Whether the tree is the same with that which

produces ebony upon the isle of Bourbon, or the islands adjacent, is not

known, as the French have not yet published any account of it.

There are but few insects in this place, but there is a species of snail

found upon the tops of the highest ridges, which probably has been there

since the original creation of their kind, at the beginning of the

world. It is indeed very difficult to conceive how any thing which was

not deposited here at its creation, or brought hither by the diligence

of man, could find its way to a place so severed from the rest of the

world, by seas of immense extent, except the hypothesis that has been

mentioned on another occasion be adopted, and this rock be supposed to

have been left behind, when a large tract of country, of which it was

part, subsided by some convulsion of nature, and was swallowed up in the

ocean.

At one o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th of May, we weighed and stood

out of the road, in company with the Portland man-of-war, and twelve

sail of Indiamen.

We continued to sail in company with the fleet, till the 10th in the

morning, when, perceiving that we sailed much heavier than any other

ship, and thinking it for that reason probable that the Portland would

get home before us, I made the signal to speak with her, upon which

Captain Elliot himself came on board, and I delivered to him a letter to

the Admiralty, with a box, containing the common log-books of the ship,

and the journals of some of the officers. We continued in company,

however, till the 23d in the morning, and then there was not one of the

ships in sight. About one o’clock in the afternoon died our first

lieutenant Mr. Hicks, and in the evening we committed his body to the

sea, with the usual ceremonies. The disease of which he died, was a

consumption, and as he was not free from it when we sailed from England,

it may truly be said that he was dying during the whole voyage, though

his decline was very gradual till we came to Batavia: the next day I

gave Mr. Charles Clerk an order to act as lieutenant in his room, a

young man who was extremely well qualified for that station.

Our rigging and sails were now become so bad, that something was giving

way every day. We continued our course, however, in safety till the 10th

of June, when land, which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered by

Nicholas Young, the same boy that first saw New Zealand; on the 11th, we

run up the channel; at six in the morning of the 12th we passed Beachy

Head; at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an

anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

--------------

Printed by A. and R. Spottiswoode,

Printers-Street, London.

Footnote 1:

In the account which Mr. Bossu has given of some Indians who inhabit

the banks of the Akanza, a river of North America, which rises in New

Mexico, and falls into the Mississippi, he relates the following

incident: “The Akanzas,” says he, “have adopted me, and as a mark of

my privilege, have imprinted the figure of a roe-buck upon my thigh,

which was done in this manner: an Indian having burnt some straw,

diluted the ashes with water, and with this mixture, drew the figure

upon my skin; he then retraced it, by pricking the lines with needles,

so as at every puncture just to draw the blood, and the blood mixing

with the ashes of the straw, forms a figure which can never be

effaced.” See Travels through Louisiana, vol. i. p. 107.

Transcriber’s Note

This book uses inconsistent spelling and hyphenation, which were

retained in the ebook version. Some corrections have been made to the

text, including such as normalizing punctuation. Further corrections are

noted below:

p. 2. preceeding -> preceding

p. 15. league and and a half -> league and a half

p. 15. on each side the entrance -> on each side of the entrance

p. 32. depth o water -> depth of water

p. 65. land in in my route -> land in my route

p. 69. latitute 370° -> latitude 37°

p. 100. of this this head -> of this head

p. 101. judging that their was -> judging that there was

p. 108. reported at his retnrn -> reported at his return

p. 119. one more remakable than the next -> one more remarkable than the

next

p. 127. Chap. II. -> Chap. III.

p. 128. horrors of our stiuation -> horrors of our situation

p. 145. Indian kalc -> Indian Kale

p. 155. it it was indeed -> it was indeed

p. 172. course grass -> coarse grass

p. 187. ninteen fathom -> nineteen fathom

p. 210. their being a perfect uniformity -> there being a perfect

uniformity

p. 212. tied roud the waist -> tied round the waist

p. 250. who where white men -> who were white men

p. 259. cellery -> celery

p. 268. continual cheiwng -> continual chewing

p. 279 delivered up as a courtsey -> delivered up as a courtesy

p. 303 possiby this account -> possibly this account

p. 325 their feast are plentiful -> their feasts are plentiful