1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 307 



But the same situation and circumstances which 

 render Batavia and the country round it unwhole- 

 some, render it the best gardener's ground in the 

 world. The soil is fruitful beyond imagination, and 

 the conveniences and luxuries of life that it produces 

 are almost without number. 



Rice, which is well known to be the corn of these 

 countries, and to serve the inhabitants instead of 

 bread, grows in great plenty : and I must here ob- 

 serve, that in the hilly parts of Java, and in many 

 of the eastern islands, a species of this grain is plant- 

 ed, which in the western parts of India is entirely 

 unknown. It is called by the natives Paddy Gimung, 

 or Mountain Rice : this, contrary to the other sort 

 which must be under water three parts in four of the 

 time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills 

 where no water but rain can come : it is however 

 planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and 

 reaped in the beginning of the dry. How far this 

 kind of rice might be useful in our West Indian 

 islands, where no bread-corn is grown, it may per- 

 haps be worth while to enquire. 



Indian corn, or maize, is also produced here ; 

 which the inhabitants gather when young, and toast 

 in the ear. Here is also a great variety of kidney- 

 beans, and lentiles, which they called Cadjang, and 

 which make a considerable part of the food of the 

 common people ; besides millet, yams both wet and 

 dry, sweet potatoes, and European potatoes, which 

 are very good, but not cultivated in great plenty. 

 In the gardens, there are cabbages, lettuces, cucum- 

 bers, radishes, the white radishes of China, which 

 boil almost as well as a turnip ; carrots, parsley, 

 celery, pigeon-peas, the egg-plant, which, broiled 

 and eaten with pepper and salt, is very delicious ; a 

 kind of greens resembling spinnage ; onions, very 

 small, but excellent ; and asparagus ; besides some 

 European plants of a strong smell, particularly sage, 

 hyssop, and rue. Sugar is also produced here in im- 



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