The Poultry of Batavia. zxj 
It happens here, as in other places, that vanity gets the better 
even of appetite : the cheap fiih, moil of which is of the belt 
.kind, is the food only of Haves, and that which is dear, oniy 
becaufe it is fcarce, and very much inferior in every refpecl, is 
jdaced upon the tables of the rich. A fenfible houfe-keeper 
.once fpoke to us freely upon the fubjefl. I know', faid he, as 
well as you, that I could purchale a better dilh of filh for a 
fhiiiing, than what now coils me ten ; but if I ihould make fo 
good al e of my money, I ihould here be as much defpifed, as 
you would be in Europe, if you were to cover) our table with 
offals, fit only for beggars or dogs. 
Turtle is alfo found here, but it is neither fo fweet, nor fo 
fat as the Weil Indian turtle, even in London ; fuch as it is, 
however, we fhculd confider it as a Sainty ; but the Dutch, 
among other fingularicies, do not eat it. We faw feme li- 
zards, or Inguanas, here of a very large fize ; we were told 
that lome were as thick as man’s thigh, and Mr. Banks ihot 
one that was five feet long : the fleih of this animal proved to 
be very good food. 
Poultry is very good here, and in great plenty : fowls of a 
very large fize, ducks, and geele are very cheap ; pigeons are 
dear, and the price of turkies extravagant. We iometimes 
found the fleih of thefe animals lean and dry, but this was 
merely the effect of their being ill fed, for thofe that we fed 
ourfelves were as good as any of the fame kind that we had 
tailed in Europe, and we fometimes thought them even better. 
Wild fowl in general is fcarce. W 7 e once fa w a wild duck 
in the fields, but never any that were to be fold. We fre- 
quently faw fnipes of two kinds, one of them exactly the fame 
as that in’ Europe, and a kind of thrufh was always to be had 
in great plenty of the Portuguefe, who, for I know not what 
reafon, feem to have monopolized the wild fowl and game. 
Of fnipes it is remarkable that they are found in more parts of 
the world than any other bird, being common almoil all over 
Europe, Afia, Africa, and America. 
With refpecl to drink, Nature lias not been quite fo liberal 
to the inhabitants of Java as to feme whom fhe has placed in 
the lefs fruitful regions of the north. The native Javanese, 
and moll of the other Indians who inhabit this ifland, are in- 
deed Mahometans, and therefore have no reafon to regret the 
want of wine ; but, as if the prohibition of their law refoedl- 
ed only the manner of becoming drunk, and not drunkennefs 
itfelf, they chew opium, to the total fubverfion not only of 
their underfianding but their health. 
The arrack that is made here, is too well known to need a 
deferiprion : befides which, the palm yields a v/ine of the 
fame kind with that which has already been deferibed in the 
account of the iiland of Savu j is is procured from the fame 
Vol. II. . T tree, 
