106 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES. 



Next day they purchased, at very moderate prices, as 

 many turtle as they had occasion for, and the whole ship's 

 company fed on this delicious fish. The king was at this 

 time at a house situated in a rice field, where Mr. Banks 

 waited on him, and found him cooking his own victuals. 



On the 12th, while the Captain was on shore giving orders 

 to the people who were cutting wood and filling water, he 

 was told that one of the natives had stolen an axe. The 

 thief was unknown ; but Captain Cook, resolving not to 

 pave the way for future depredations of this kind, by taking 

 no notice of the first offence, he immediately applied to the 

 king ; and in consequence of this application, the axe was 

 brought down to the watering place next day. The Indian, 

 who brought it back, said it was left at his house in the 

 night ; but it was suspected that himself was the thief. 



After a stay of ten days at Princes Island, during which 

 they purchased vegetables of various kinds, fowls, deer, and 

 turtle, the anchor was weighed, and the vessel once more 

 put to sea. 



The island, which lies in the western mouth of the Strait 

 of Sunda^ is small and woody, and has been cleared only 

 in very few places. Our India ships used to touch at 

 Princes Island to take in water, but they omitted this 

 practice for some years, on account, as it was said, of the 

 water being brackish ; yet Captain Cook says it is exceed- 

 ingly good, if filled towards the head of the brook. 



The houses are constructed in the form of an oblong 

 square ; they are built on pillars four feet above the ground, 

 and well thatched with palm leaves, as a defence from the 

 sun and rain ; the flooring is of bamboo canes, placed at 

 a distance from each other, to admit the air ; these houses 

 consist of four rooms, one of which is destined for the 

 reception of visitants, the children sleep in a second, and 

 the two others are allotted, the one for the purpose of 

 cookery, and the other for the bed-chamber of the owner 

 and his wife. The residence of the king of the island, 

 and that of another person of great authority, has boards 

 on the sides, while the houses of all the inferior people 

 have walls made of the bamboo cane, slit into small sticks, 

 are wrought across the beams of the building, in the 

 manner of a hurdle. The king of the island is subject to 

 the Sultan of Bantam. 



Captain Cook represents the natives as very honest in 

 their dealings, with the single exception of demanding more 

 than double the sum they intended to sell for. 



At the time the Endeavour left Princes Island, her crew 

 began to feel, in all its force, the ill effects of the putrid air 

 of Batavia ; and soon afterwards the ship was a mere 



