' THE STRAIT OF SUNDA. i6i 
sufficiently reasonable. For instance, we purchased from 
fifteen to twenty common fowls for a dollar, five fine capons 
for the same sum, and the price of a moderate sized buffalo 
was not more than ten or twelve dollars. The natives usually 
come off in their canoes, to ships which may anchor here, 
with plentiful supplies of the fruits peculiar to the island, 
and other vegetables that may be in season. The air is dry 
and pleasant ; and a cool refreshing breeze descends from the 
high lands of Java, spreading its fragrance to a distance 
much beyond the anchorage of the ships. Yet because this 
side of the strait is occasionally subject to calms, which may 
sometimes have caused the delay of two or three days at the 
utmost, fe^v of the outward-bound China ships touch at 
Aiijerie, preferring to take in a fresh supply of wood and 
water at North Island, or rather on the Sumatra shore op- 
posite to this island, where only wood and water are pro- 
curable, and where numbers of seamen yearly fall a sacrifice 
either to Malay treachery, from the plunderers who are al- 
ways lurking among the forests on this part of the coast, or 
to the unhealtliiness of the place, occasioned by the heavy 
nightly fogs that hang over this low swampy shore, and the 
noxious vapours arismg from the putrefactive fermentation of 
vegetable matter ; an operation which, in this region of the 
world, is incessantly carrying on. We had full experience of 
the conveniencies of the one place and the disadvantap-es of 
the other, both on the outward-bound passage and on our 
return, to induce us on every consideration to give a decided 
preference to Anjerie point : and surely the delay of a few 
days, or even a week, in a voyage of such long duration, is 
