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only are employed in this dreadful fervice. 

 Of thefe feveral every year, are fent with 

 a promife of pardon, and reward, if they 

 procure it. Hooded in leathern cafes, with 

 glafs eyelet-holes, and fecured as much as 

 poffible from the full effluvia of the air they 

 are to breathe, they undertake this melancholy 

 journey; travelling always with the wind. 

 About one in ten efcapes, and brings away 

 a little box of this direful commodity. 



Of the dreadful and fudden effect of this 

 poifon, the author faw many inftances. He 

 mentions among others, the execution of 

 thirteen young ladies of the emperor's feraglio j 

 who having been convicted of infidelity to 

 his bed, were condemned to die by the poifon 

 of Upas; which is confidered in Java, like 

 the axe in England, an honourable inurnment 

 of death. At eleven o'clock in the fore- 

 noon thefe unhappy victims were led into 

 a court in the palace, where a row of thirteen 

 pofts had been erected. To thefe they were 

 bound. As they flood trembling, they were 

 obliged to confefs the juftice of their fentence ; 

 which each of them did, by laying one hand 

 on the koran, and the other on her bread. 

 When thefe confeflions were finifhed, and a 



M 2 few 



