1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 315 



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 consider- 

 able distance, where great quantities of land are cul- 

 tivated 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 an- 

 tidote 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 



