Goon Accommodations at Prince’s Island. 233 
only a few leagues from Prince’s Ifland, at neither of which 
places any confiderable quantity of other refrefhments can be 
procured. Prince’s Ifland is, upon the whole, certainly more 
eligible than either of them; and though the water is brackifh, 
if it is filled at the lower part of the brook, yet higher up it 
will be found excellent. 
The firft and lecond, and perhaps the third lhip that comes 
in the feafon may be tolerably fupplied with turtle; but thofe 
that come afterwards muft be content with fmall ones. Thofe 
that we bought were of the green kind, and at an average colt 
us about a half-penny or three farthings a pound. We were 
much difappointed to find them neither fat nor well flavoured ; 
and we imputed it tq their having been long kept in crawls or 
pens of brackifh water, without food. The fowls are large, 
and we bought a dozen of them for a Spanifh dollar, which is 
about five pence a piece : the fmall deer cofl: us two pence a 
piece, and the larger, of which two only were brought down, 
a rupee. Many kinds of fifh are to be had here, which the 
natives fell by hand, and we found them tolerably cheap. 
Cocoa-nuts we bought at the rate of a hundred for a dollar, if 
they were picked; and if they were taken promifeuoufly, one 
hundred and thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty; we 
procured alfo fome pine apples, water melons, jaccas, and 
pumpkins; befides rice, the greater part of which was of the 
mountain kind, that grows in dry land; yams, and feverai 
other vegetables, at a very reafonable rate. 
The inhabitants are Javanefe, whofe Raja is fubjeft to the 
Sultan of Bantam. Their cuftoms are very fimilar to thofe of 
the Indians about Batavia ; but they feem to be more jealous of 
their women, for we never faw any of them during all the time 
that we were there, except one by chance in the woods, as fhe 
was running away to hide herfelf. They profefs the Mahome- 
tan religion, but I believe there is not a mofque in the whole 
ifland: we were among them during the fall, which the Turks 
call Ramadan , which they feemed to keep with great rigour, 
for not one of them would touch a morfel of vidluals, or even 
chew their betele till fun-fet. 
Their food is nearly the fame as that of the Batavian Indians, 
except the addition of the nuts of the palm, called Cyca cird- 
nalis, with which, upon the coail of New Holland, fome of 
our people were made fick, and fome of our hogs poifoned. 
Upon obferving thefe nuts to be part of their food, we en- 
quired by what means they deprived them of their deleterious 
quality ; and they told us, that they firft cut them into thin 
flice.i, and dried them in the fun, then fteeped them in frefh 
water for three months, and afterwards, preiiingout the water, 
dried them in the fun a fecond time; but we learnt that, after 
all, they are eaten only in times of fcarcity, when they mix 
them wuh their rice to make it go farther. ' T-te 
