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 inflances. He 

 mentions among others, the execution of 

 thirteen young ladies of the emperor's feraglio ; 

 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 inflrument 

 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 creeled. 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 breaft. 

 When thefe confeflions were finifhed, and a 



few 



