Jan. 1771 DESCRIPTION OF PRINCE’S ISLAND 421 
but, altogether, I believe, they came to about a halfpenny or 
three farthings a pound. They were of the green kind, but 
not fat nor well flavoured in any degree, as they are in most 
other parts. This I believe is in great measure owing to the 
people keeping them, sometimes for a very long time, in crawls 
of brackish water, where they have no kind of food given to 
them. Fowls are tolerably cheap, a dozen large ones sold 
when we were there for a Spanish dollar, which is 5d. 
apiece. They have also plenty of monkeys and small deer 
(Moschus pygmeus), the largest of which are not quite so big 
as a new fallen lamb, and another kind of deer, called by 
them munchack, about the size of a sheep. The monkeys 
were about half a dollar (2s. 6d.), the small deer 2d.; the 
larger, of which they brought down only two, a rupee, or 2s. 
Fish they have of various kinds, and we always found 
them tolerably cheap. Vegetables they have: cocoanuts— 
a dollar for 100, if you choose them, or 130 if you take 
them as they come,—plantains in plenty, some water melons, 
pine-apples, jaccas (jack fruit), pumpkins; also rice, chiefly of 
the mountain sort which grows on dry land, yams, and 
several other vegetables: all which are sold reasonably enough. 
The inhabitants are Javans, whose Radja is subject to 
the Sultan of Bantam, from whom they receive orders, and 
to whom they possibly pay a tribute, but of that I am not 
certain. Their customs, I believe, are very much like those 
of the Indians about Batavia, only they seem much more 
jealous of their women, so much so that I never saw one 
during the whole time of our stay, unless she was running away 
at full speed to hide herself in the woods. Their religion is 
Mahometanism, but I believe they have not a mosque upon 
the island: they were, however, very strict in the observance 
of their fast (the same as’ the Ramadan of the Turks), during 
which we happened to come. Not one would touch victuals 
until sunset, or even chew their betel; but half an hour 
before that time all went home to cook the kettle, nor would 
they stay for any time but in the hope of extraordinary profit. 
The food was nearly the same as the Batavian Indians, 
adding only to it the nuts of the palm Cycas circinalis, with 
