Flowers and Spices op Batavia. 215 
Thefe are all fold about the fireets every evening at fun- 
fet, either ftrung upon a thread, in wreaths of about two feet 
lone, or made up into nofegays of different forms, either of 
which may be purchafed for about a halfpenny. Befides thefe, 
there are in private gardens, many other fweet flowers, which 
are not produced in a fuflicient quantity to be brought to mar- 
ket. With a mixture of thefe flowers, and the leaves of a 
plant called patidang, cut into fmail pieces, perfons of both 
fexes fill their hair and their clothes, and with the fame mix- 
ture indulge a much higher luxury by firewing it on their 
beds, fo that the chamber in which they fleep, breathes the 
richeft and purefl of all odours, unallayed by the fumes which 
cannot but arife where the fleeper lies under two or three blan- 
kets and a quilt, for the bed covering here is nothing more 
than a Angle piece of fine chintz. 
Before I clofe my account of the vegetable productions, of 
this part of India, I mu ft take fome notice of the fpices. Ja- 
va originally produced none but pepper. This is now fent 
from hence into Europe to a great value, but the quantity con- 
fumed here is very ftnall : the inhabitants ule Capjtcum, or, as 
it is called in Europe, Cayan pepper, almcft univerfally in its 
ftead. Cloves and nutmegs, having been monopolized by the 
Dutch, are become too dear to be plentifully ufed by the other 
inhabitants of this country, who are very fond of them. 
Cloves, although they are faid originally to have been the 
produce of Machian, or Bachian, a fmail ifland far to the 
eafiwara, and only fifteen miles to the northward of the line, 
and to have been from thence diffeminated by the Dutch, at 
their firfl coming into thefe parts, over all the eaflern iflands, 
are now confined to Amboina, and the fmail illes that lie in its 
neighbourhood ; the Dutch having, by different treaties of 
peace between them and the conquered kings of all the other 
iflands, ftipulated, that they fhould have only a certain num- 
ber of trees in their dominions, and in future quarrels, as a 
punifhment for difobedience and rebellion leffened the quan- 
tity, till at laft they left them no claim to any. Nutmegs 
have in a manner been extirpated in all the iflands except their 
firfl; native foil, Banda, which eafily fupplies every nation 
upon earth, and would as eafily fupply every nation upon 
earth, and would as eafily fupply every nation in another globe 
of- the fame dimenfions, if there was any fuch to which the 
induflrious Hollander could tranfport the commodity ; it is, 
however, certain, that there are a few trees of this fpice upon 
the coaft of New Guinea. There may perhaps be both cloves 
and nutmegs upon the other iflands to the eafiward ; for thofe, 
neither the Dutch, nor any other European, feem to think it 
woith while to examine. 
The principal tame quadrupeds of this county are horfes, 
ca5*le> 
