368 



BATAVIA 



CHAP. XVI 



our dinners and suppers consisted of one course each, the 

 one of fifteen, the other of thirteen dishes, of which, when 

 you came to examine them, seldom less than nine or ten 

 were of bad poultry, roasted, boiled, fried, stewed, etc. etc. 

 So little conscience had they in serving up dishes over and 

 over again, that I have seen the same identical duck appear 

 upon the table three times as roasted duck, before he found 

 his way into the fricassee, from whence he was again to pass 

 into forcemeat. 



This treatment, however, was not without remedy ; we 

 found that it was the constant custom of the house to supply 

 strangers at their first arrival with every article as bad as 

 possible ; if through good nature or indolence they put up 

 with it, it was so much the better for the house, if not 

 it was easy to mend their treatment by degrees, till they 

 were satisfied. On this discovery we made frequent remon- 

 strances, and mended our fare considerably, so much so that 

 had we had any one among us who understood this kind of 

 wrangling, I am convinced we might have lived as well as 

 we could have desired. 



Being now a little settled, I hired a small house next 

 door to the hotel, for which I payed 10 rix. r . (2) a month. 

 Here our books, etc., were lodged, but here we were far from 

 private, almost every Dutchman that came by running in 

 and asking what we had to sell ; for it seems that hardly 

 any individual had ever been at Batavia before who had not 

 something or other to sell. I also hired two carriages, which 

 are a kind of open chaise made to hold two people and 

 driven by a man on a coach-box. For each of these I paid 

 2 rix. r . (8s.) a day, by the month. We sent for Tupia, who 

 had till now remained on board on account of his illness, 

 which was of the bilious kind, and for which he had all 

 along refused to take any medicine. On his arrival, his 

 spirits, which had long been very low, were instantly raised 

 by the sights which he saw, and his boy Tayeto, who had 

 always been perfectly well, was almost ready to run mad ; 

 houses, carriages, streets, and everything, were to him sights 

 which he had often heard described but never well under- 



