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and very flexible. The fruit have the appearance of licht and are of the size 

 of an egg; the natives make wine of them, which is called kadjang-wine and 

 has the power of intoxicating. The natives also take these leaves and with 

 bamboo make fine mats of them, only two feet broacl and more than ten 

 feet long, which they offer for sale (*). 



They have sugar-cane, plantains, nangka ( jack-fruit) , wild lic/ds, etc. 

 Their vegetables are onions, ginger, leek, mustard, gourcls and meions. 

 Cattle , goats , fowls and ducks are found , but in small numbers , and their 

 price is therefore very dear, one bufialo costing a catty of silver; they have 

 no donkeys or horses. 



In the sea along the coast are found turtles and dragons which attack 

 men (alligators). The dragon is three or four feet high, has four legs and its 

 whole body covered with scales , a crest of points on its back, a head like a 

 dragon and protruding teeth. When it meets with men it devours them. 



In the mountains is a yellow tiger, a little smaller than the yellow 

 tiger in China; there is also a black tiger and a yellow one with dark spots. 



Sometimes there is a kind of tiger which assumes a human shape , 

 comes to the town and goes among the people; when it is recognised it is 

 caught and killed. 



The place is visited by Chinese merchant-vessels ; whenever these come 

 a banier is made (for the purpose of collecting tolls). 



In the city-wall are four gates , provided with watch and drum-towers ; 

 at night they patrol, ringing a kind of small bells. Inside their walls they 

 have a second fortress of palissades , where godowns have been made and all 

 the money and provisions are stowed away here. 



When the government ships (of the mission to which the author be- 

 longed) were on their home voyage , they visited this place as well to repair 

 as to load native products ; they waited here for a favourable southwind and 

 in the midclle of the fifth month they put to sea on their voyage home. The 

 king, with his wife, his son and a number of his chiefs, prepared products 

 of the country and foliowed the fleet to China, where they went to court 

 and presented tribute. 



About a hundred years later than the preceding article, another account of 

 Malacca was written in the 



(') It is evident that the nipa-palm is meant here. 



