I77Q CLIMATE CROPS CATTLE 387 



people here for the recovery of their health lost in the low 

 country, and say that the effects of such a change of air is 

 almost miraculous, working an instant change in favour of 

 the patient, who during his stay there remains well, but no 

 sooner returns to his necessary occupations at Batavia than 

 his complaints return in just the same degree as before his 

 departure. 



Few parts of the world, I believe, are better furnished 

 with the necessaries as well as the luxuries of life, than the 

 island of Java. The unhealthiness of the country about 

 Batavia is in that particular rather an advantage to it ; for 

 the very cause of it, a low flat situation, is likewise the 

 cause of a fruitfulness of soil hardly to be paralleled, which 

 is sufficiently testified by the flourishing condition of the 

 immense quantities of fruit-trees all round the town, as well 

 as by the quantity and excellence of their crops of sugar- 

 cane, rice, Indian corn, etc. etc. ID " <ed, the whole island is 

 allowed to be uncommonly fruitful by those who have seen 

 it, and in general as healthy as fruitful, excepting only such 

 low fenny spots as the neighbourhood of Batavia, far fitter 

 to sow rice upon than to build towns. 



The tame quadrupeds are horses, cattle, buffaloes, sheep, 

 goats, and hogs. The horses are small, never exceeding in 

 size what we call a stout Galloway, but nimble and spirited : 

 they are said to have been found here when the Europeans 

 first came round the Cape of Good Hope. The cattle are 

 said to be the same as those in Europe, but differ from them 

 in appearance so much that I am inclined to doubt. They 

 have, however, the palearia, which naturalists make to be 

 the distinguishing mark of our species. On the other hand, 

 they are found wild, not only on Java, but on several of 

 the eastern islands. The flesh of those that I ate at 

 Batavia was rather finer -grained than European beef, but 

 much drier, and always terribly lean. Buffaloes are very 

 plentiful, but the Dutch are so much prejudiced against 

 them, that they will not eat their flesh at all, nor even drink 

 their milk, affirming that it causes fevers. The natives, 

 however, and the Chinese do both, and have no such opinion 



