388 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP, XVII 
concerning them. Their sheep, of that sort whose ears hang 
down and have hair instead of wool, are most intolerably bad, 
lean, and tough to the last degree. They have, however, a 
few Cape sheep, which are excellent, though intolerably dear. 
We gave £2: 5s. a piece for four, which we bought for sea 
stock, the heaviest of which weighed only 45 lbs. Their 
goats are much of a par with their sheep, but their hogs 
are certainly excellent, especially the Chinese, which are so 
immensely fat that nobody thinks of buying the fat with 
the lean. The butcher, when you buy it, cuts off as much 
as you please, and sells it to his countrymen, the Chinese, 
who melt it down and eat it instead of butter with their 
rice. Notwithstanding the excellence of this pork, the 
Dutch are so prejudiced in favour of everything which 
comes from the Fatherland, that they will not eat it at all, 
but use entirely the Dutch breed, which are sold as much 
dearer than the Chinese here, as the Chinese are dearer than 
them in Europe. 
Besides these domestic animals, their woods afford some 
wild horses and cattle, but only in the distant mountains, 
and even there they are very scarce. Buffaloes are not 
found wild upon Java, though they are upon Macassar, 
and are numerous in several of the eastern islands. The 
neighbourhood of Batavia, however, is pretty plentifully 
supplied with deer of two kinds, and wild hogs, both which 
are very good meat, and often shot by the Portuguese, who 
sell them tolerably cheap. Monkeys also there are, though 
but few in the neighbourhood of Batavia. 
On the mountains and in the more desert part of the 
island are tigers, it is said, in too great abundance, and some 
rhinoceroses; but neither of these animals are ever heard of 
in the neighbourhood of Batavia, or indeed any in well-peopled 
part of the island. 
Fish are in immense plenty; many sorts of them very 
excellent and inconceivably cheap; but the Dutch, true to 
the dictates of luxury, buy none but those which are scarce. 
We, who in the course of our long migration in the warm 
latitudes had learned the real excellence of many of the 
