OP LA PEROUSE. 37 5 



tune, which, though very vexatious to thofe who 

 are fubject to them, they rarely fail to employ ; 

 for in putting the poor Amboyans under contri- 

 bution to the agents of the Company, they take 

 care not to forget their own interefts. It fomc- 

 times however happens, that this fortune goes 

 to wreck much fader than it has been accumu- 

 lated, when the Company's agents find means to 

 turn to their own advantage the cupidity of the 

 Qrankayes. 



The inhabitants of Amboyna fpeak the Ma- 

 lay language ; it is very foft : the analogy 

 which it bears to the language of the inhabitants 

 of the South Sea, has determined me to give, to- 

 wards the end of the fecond volume, a pretty ex- 

 tenfive vocabulary of it, which I collected ai 

 Amboyna, and in the ifland of Java, where I 

 refided a very long time, at the end of this ex- 

 pedition. 



The ufe of betel has been eftablifhed from 

 time immemorial among thefe people.- They 

 take fome young leaves of the pepper- tree, called 

 piper firiboa, in Malay firi, and after .they 

 have covered them with a little very pure lime, 

 made of fhells and newly flackened, they chew 

 them with the cafhew-nut : fome even purfue 

 this gratification without any other interrup- 

 tion than at the hours of eating and fleeping. I 

 was very much furprifed that, notwithstanding 

 B b 4 the 



