1770 FISH—FOWLS—VEGETABLES 389 
cheapest sorts, wondered much at seeing them the food of 
none but slaves. On inquiry, however, of a sensible house- 
keeper, he told us that he, as well as we, knew that for one 
shilling he could purchase a better dish of fish than he did 
for ten. “But,” said he, “I dare not do it, for should it be 
known that I did so, I should be looked upon in the same 
light as one in Europe who covered his table with offal fit 
for nothing but beggars or dogs.” Turtle is here also 
in abundance, but despised by Europeans; indeed, for what 
reason I know not, it is neither so sweet nor so fat as our 
West Indian turtle, even in England. They have also a 
kind of large lizard or iguana, some of which are said to be 
as thick as a man’s thigh. I shot one about five feet long, 
and it proved very good meat. 
Poultry is prodigiously plentiful; very large fowls, 
ducks, and geese are cheap; pigeons are rather dear and 
turkeys extravagant. In general, those we ate at Batavia 
were lean and dry, but this I am convinced proceeds from 
their being ill-fed, as I have eaten every kind there as good 
or better than commonly met with in Europe. 
Wild fowl are in general scarce. I saw during my stay 
one wild duck in the fields, but never one to be sold. 
Snipe, however, of two kinds, one exactly the same as in 
Europe, and a kind of thrush, are plentifully sold every day 
by the Portuguese, who, for I know not what reason, seem 
to monopolise the wild game. 
Nor is the earth less fruitful of vegetables than she is of 
animals. Rice, which everybody knows is to the inhabitants 
of these countries the common corn, serving instead of 
bread, is very plentiful: one kind of it is planted here, and 
in many of the eastern islands, which in the western parts 
of India is totally unknown. It is called by the natives 
paddy gunang, that is, mountain rice; this, unlike the 
other sort, which must be under water three parts of the 
time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills, where 
no water but rain can possibly come. They take, however, 
the advantage of planting it in the beginning of the rainy 
season, by which means they reap it in the beginning of the 
