l6gy.] BEEF, GAME, AND DRUGS. 231 



Seed has been brought. This Island, moreover, as you may- 

 very well imagine, has its own particular Plant,?. Here 

 follow two of them, which one of my Friends who has 

 apply'd himself to that Study, has curiously design'd for me : 

 I think they are little known ; they say they only grow 

 naturally in some of those little Islands which lie between 

 Borneo and Java} 



Beef and Buffalo cost two pence a Pound, and are not 

 much better one than the other. This Country abounds 

 with a sort of wild Boars or Hogs, which you may have at 

 very cheap rates. Mutton is extreamly dear here, and to be 

 seen only at the best Tables. The Eeason is that sheep are 

 not rear'd without great difficulty, the pasture being not 

 proper for them, and the Dew besides rotting them^ : They 

 swell and die in a short time. China-Voik, so call'd because 

 the Hogs come from that Country, is sold at six-pence a 

 Pound : They have Pullets, Ducks, and Pigeons, which are 

 sold very near as dear as they are in Europe. Hunted 

 Game is scarce, except Pintado'' s, of which I have already 

 spoken, and whereof there are two or three kinds : You 

 have abundance of Fish here, and that almost for nothing. 

 There is but one reigning or common Distemper in the 

 Island of Java, but which is very dangerous, and extreamly 

 painful. The French at Batavia call this Disease Le Perse : 

 It is a continual Bloody Flux. As there is no known Eemedy 

 for it, the Patient must wait, live sparingly, and let Nature 

 act, the surest and safest Method in most sorts of Maladies. 

 One may truly say, according to the Etymology of the Word, 

 that the Drugs which Pharmacy is compos'd of, generally 

 speaking are rather a parcel of Poysons than Eemedies, and 

 they believe in Java, among the Islanders, that almost all 



1 The plates of these two extraordinary plants hardly suffice to give 

 means of identification, and are, therefore, not included among the 

 illustrations of this edition. 



2 In orig. : " & la rosee sur tout leur etant fort contraire." 



