102 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



people there give the preference to Cayenne pepper. The 

 inhabitants are extremely fond of nutmegs and cloves ; 

 but they bear too high a price to be much in use, as the 

 trees which produce them are all become Dutch property. 



The island of Java produces goats, sheep, hogs, buffaloes, 

 and horses. The horse, which is said to have been met 

 with here when the country was originally discovered, is 

 a small, but nimble animal, being seldom above thirteen 

 hands high. The horned cattle of this country are different 

 from those of Europe ; the flesh is extremely lean, but of 

 a very fine grain. Both the Chinese and the natives of 

 the island feed on the buffalo ; but the Dutch will neither 

 taste the flesh nor the milk, from the ridiculous idea, that 

 they are productive of fevers. The sheep are tough and 

 ill-tasted ; their skins are hairy, and they have pendulous 

 ears. 



The hogs, especially those of the Chinese breed, are 

 exquisitely fine food, but so extravagantly fat, that the lean 

 is always sold separately. 



The quantity of fish taken here is astonishingly great, 

 and all the kinds of them are fine food, except a few which 

 are very scarce ; yet such is the false pride of the inhabi- 

 tants, that these few sorts are sold at very high rates, while 

 those that are good are sold for a mere trifle, nor are they 

 eaten but by the slaves. A gentleman with whom Captain 

 Cook dined, told him he could have bought a finer dish 

 of fish for a shilling than what he had given ten for ; but 

 that he should have been the ridicule of all the politer 

 people if he had gone to so good a market. 



Mr. Banks shot a lizard five feet in length, which was 

 extremely well tasted : our adventurers were informed 

 that some of these animals had been seen which were full 

 as thick as the thigh of a man. 



Captain Cook was informed that, at the time he was 

 there, the whole place could not furnish fifty women who 

 were natives of Europe, yet the town abounded with white 

 women who were descended from Europeans, who had 

 settled there at different times, all the men having paid 

 the debt of nature ; for so it is, that the climate of Batavia 

 destroys the men much faster than the women. 



The Indian inhabitants of Batavia and the country in 

 its neighbourhood are not native Javanese, but are either 

 born on the several islands whence the Dutch bring their 

 slaves, or the offspring of such as have been born on those 

 islands ; and these having been made free, either in their 

 own persons or in the persons of their ancestors, enjoy all the 

 privileges of freemen. They receive the general appellation 

 of Oranslam, which implies, " Believers of the true faith." 



