heat, which they believed rendered the land there fo arid and barren as to be unable to produce any thing for the fubfiftence of man. This opinion originated from their total ignorance refpecting the interior parts of Africa which lie between the tropics, as well as refpecting the Indies, and the great peninsula beyond the Ganges. The improvements of navigation, in modern times, have exploded this error, and proved that the lands near the equinoctial, far from being infertile and uninhabited, on the contrary, yield the palm in nothing to lefs torrid regions, and are able to feed full as many inhabitants as the most fertile country in the temperate climates, provided the land be but properly cultivated.

The idea that the heat must be utterly infupportable in these parts is not so abfurd, for the fun is twice a year vertically over them, and its rays fhoot almost always in a perpendicular line; fo that it would for certain be nearly as bad as was fuppofed, if nature herself did not come to their affiftance, by the refreshing land and fea-breezes which blow here alternately throughout the year, and fo far moderate the heat as to make it bearable by moft men. As the rifing and fetting of the fun is likewise always nearly at the fame hour, and fcarcely differing more than a few minutes, the long nights confequently cool the air fo much, that in the morning for an hour or two before day-break, it may be rather faid to be cold than warm, especially for such people as have refided here for fome time.

From the month of July to November, which was the time of my last stay at Batavia, the thermometer of Fahrenheit was always, in the hottest part of the day, between eighty-four and ninety degrees, excepting only one day when it rofe to ninety-two degrees; and in the greatest degree of coolnefs in the morning, it was feldom lower than seventy-fix degrees. This thermometer was placed in the open air, in the city, fhaded both from the rays of the fun, and from their reflection.

The barometer undergoes little or no variation, and ftands for a whole year at twenty-nine inches ten lines, as I was informed by the Rev. Mr. Mohr, who made daily annotations thereof.

The warmth of the air decreases greatly, on approaching the mountains, which lie towards the fouthern parts of the ifland. Credible people have affured me, that at the country feat of the governor general, which is called Buitenzorg, (rural care), and is fituated full fixteen Dutch miles fouth from Batavia, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, the cold is fo great in the morning, that not only thick clothes are requifite, but it is difficult to become warm even with them *.

every

The land and fea-winds, of which mention has already been made, blow here day, without exception. The fea-breeze, which in the east monfoon is generally confined between east-north-eaft and north, but in the west monfoon runs as far as northweft, and farther, begins to blow about eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon. It increases in the afternoon by degrees, till the evening, and then dies gradually away, till about eight or nine o'clock it is perfectly calm. The land wind then. begins at midnight, or juft before, and continues till an hour or two after sunrise, when it generally again falls calm, till the fea-breeze comes on at its accustomed

hour.

* Dr. Thunberg, who vifited both Buitenzorg and the Blue Mountains, fays, that the climate there was very healthy and refreshing, and the air, especially in the morning and evening, not only cool, but abfolutely cold, infomuch that, not having brought a great coat with him, he was " chilled, and perfectly fhivered with the cold evening air,. in a country that lies almoft directly under the equator." TR.

The

The year is divided into two feasons, one of which is called the east monsoon *, or dry season, and the other the west monsoon, or rainy season.

The eaft, or good monfoon (goede mouffon), commences in the months of April and May, and ends in the latter end of September, or the beginning of October. The tradewinds then blow, about four or five leagues off fhore, and through the whole of the Indian feas, to the fouth of the line, from the fouth-east and east-south-east, at times, however, running as far as fouth-fouth-eaft, with fine dry weather, and a clear fky. The weft, or bad monfoon (kwaade mouffon), generally begins in the latter end of November, or the beginning of December. The wind then often blows with great violence, and is accompanied by heavy torrents of rain, which render this season very unhealthy, and a time of the greatest mortality. The fame winds are likewife found to prevail every where to the fouth of the line. They continue to the latter end of February, or the beginning of March, and then are very variable, till April; in which month, as I was informed, the easterly winds begin to blow: hence thefe months, as likewise October and part of November, are called the fhifting months; and these times of the breaking up of the monfoons, are esteemed at Batavia, the most unhealthy of all.

It is very remarkable, that when the westerly winds blow as far as nine or ten degrees to the fouth of the line, the contrary takes place, at the fame time, and to the fame distance, to the north of it; and vice verfa, when the westerly winds prevail to the north, the easterly winds blow to the south of the line; which alternation is greatly helpful to the navigation weftward of Java.

For fome years paft, it has been obferved at Batavia, that the commencement of the monfoons begins to be very uncertain, so that, neither their beginning, nor their end, can be depended upon, with fo much certainty as formerly; the cause of which has not hitherto been discovered.

Thunder-storms are very frequent at Batavia, especially towards the conclusion of the monfoons, when they occur almost every evening. They however, mostly pass away without doing any damage. I have noticed in my journal the only two times, during my refidence there, that they did any; the one in the month of Auguft, 1769, when I was at the island Onruft, where the lightning fell upon the powder-magazine, wholly destroying the tiled roof, while it fortunately happened, that there was no powder, at that time, in the magazine; the other, when it ftruck the fhip, the Admiral de Ruiter, in October, 1770; both which accidents were however unaccompanied by the deftruction of any person.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no large rivers in Java, navigable by veffels of even a moderate burden, but there are many fmall ones, which flowing down from the mountains, in a northerly direction, run into the fea, all along the north coaft; they are however, moftly choaked up at the mouth, by fands, or mud-banks, which render their entrances, at low water, very difficult to the fmalleft veffels.

On the bank, or bar, before Batavia, the flood rifes about fix feet, though at springtides, as every where, it is more. High and low water, likewife, only occur once in four-and-twenty hours.

*The word monfoon, (in Dutch, mouffon), is derived from mouffim, which, in the Malay language, fignifies feafon. See Valentyn, Befchryving van Ooft-Indie, vol. ii. p. 136.

Mr. Marfden, in his hiftory of Sumatra, page 13, fays, that the word mooffeem, of which the term monfoon appears to be a corruption, fignifies a year, both in Arabic, and in Malay. Tr.

The productions which the island yields, are confiderable, and of great importance to the company: more particularly for the last thirty years, in which period the cultivation of coffee, and other articles, has been affiduously profecuted and encouraged.

*

The chief produce is pepper, which is moftly grown in the western part of the ifland. This fpice is produced from a plant of the vine kind, which twines its tendrils round poles, or trees, like ivy or hops. The pepper corns grow in bunches, close to each other. They are first green, but afterwards turn black. When dried, they are first separated from the duft, and partly from the outward membranous coat, by means of a kind of winnow, called a harp, and then laid up in warehouses. This winnow or harp is an oblong frame, with a bottom of iron wire closely twisted, fo that the pepper-corns cannot pafs through it; this is fet floping, and the ungarbled pepper rolling along it frees itself from moft of its impurities.

The empire of Bantam, with its dependencies at Lampon, yields annually to the Company more than fix millions of pounds of this fpice. This pepper is esteemed the next best to that which comes from the coaft of Malabar. That from Palembang, of which likewife a very confiderable quantity is delivered to the Company, as well as that of Borneo, is of a much inferior quality t.

The price for which the King of Bantam is obliged to fell all the pepper, produced in his dominions, is fixed at fix rix-dollars, or fourteen gilders and eight stivers per picol, of one hundred and twenty-five pounds ‡.

It has been the opinion of many, that the white pepper is the fruit of a plant, distinct from that which produces the black; this, however, is not the cafe; they are both the fame production; but the white is manufactured, by being laid in lime, which takes off its outer coat, and renders it whitish. This is done before the pepper is perfectly dry.

Rice § is the fecond product of Java, and is collected in large quantities, especially in the empire of Java Proper. It grows chiefly in low, fenny ground. After it has been fown, and has fhot up about two or three hand breadths, above the ground, it is tranfplanted by little bundles, of fix or more plants, in rows; then by the damming up of the many rivulets, which abound in this country, the rice is inundated, in the rainy season, and kept under water, till the stalks have attained fufficient strength; when the land is drained, by opening the dams, and it is foon dried by the great heat of the fun. At the time of the rice harveft the fields have much the fame appearance as our wheat and barley-fields, and afford an equally rich scene of golden uniformity.

The fickle is not used in reaping the rice, but instead of it a small knife, with which the stalk it cut, about a foot under the ear; this is done, one by one, and they are then bound into fheaves, the tenth of which is the reward of the mower.

The paddee, which is the name given to the rice, whilft in the hufk ||, does not grow, like wheat and barley, in compact ears, but like oats, in loofe fpikes. It is not

* Piper nigrum.

+ See the exact quantities of the imports of pepper at Batavia, for one year, from all these places, in book iv, chap. 1. of Mr. Stavorinus's fecond voyage. TR.

Equal to about twenty-two fhillings fterling per hundred weight English, or nearly twopence halfpenny per pound. TR. § Oryza sativa.

The following, befides many others, are names applied to rice, in its different ftages of growth and preparation; paddee, orginal name of the feed: ooflay, grain of last season; bunnee, the rice-plants before transplantation; brafs, or bray, rice ftripped of its hufk; charroop, rice cleaned for boiling; naffee, boiled rice. &c. Tr.

threshed,

threshed, to feparate it from the hufk, but ftamped in large wooden blocks, hollowed out; and the more it is ftamped the whiter it becomes when boiled. The native Indians, throughout the eaft, ufe this grain as bread, and as their principal food.

Java has been called the granary of the east, on account of the immenfe quantity of rice which it produces. The other islands in this neighbourhood, yield little or none, except Celebes, where enough is grown to provide likewife Amboyna with this staff of life.

*

In the year 1767, the quantity of feven thousand lafts, or thirty-one millions of pounds of rice was required, and furnished, for the confumption of Batavia, Ceylon, and Banda, from the island of Java.

Sugar is likewife an article, which is produced in large quantities in Java, and brought to Batavia. The quantity of thirteen millions of pounds, manufactured in the year 1768 in the province of Jaccatra alone, is fufficient to fhew with what luxuriance the fugar-cane † flourishes here. Much of it is exported to the weft of India, to Surat and the coaft of Malabar, and the rest to Europe. Most of the fugar-mills are kept and worked by Chinese.

A fourth production of the island is coffee. The plantations of it are, however, peculiarly confined to the provinces of Cheribon and Jaccatra. The tree which produces this berry was first introduced into Java in 1722, or 1723, under the government of the governor general Zwaardekroon, who greatly encouraged the culti vation of it among the Javanese. It is at prefent fo much multiplied, that in the year 1768, Jaccatra furnished four millions four hundred and fixty-five thousand five hundred pounds weight to the Company, who paid no more, according to the best of my knowledge, than three rix dollars and a half, or eight gilders eight ftivers per picol, of a hundred and twenty-five pounds §.

Cotton-yarn is likewise an important object of trade, which Java furnishes to the Company. It is spun by the Javanese, from the cotton which is produced in great plenty in the interior parts. The province of Jaccatra yielded, in 1768, no more than one hundred and thirty-three picols, or fixteen thousand two hundred and twenty-five pounds, which was one thousand eight hundred and feventy-five pounds lefs than ought to have been delivered by the Indians, according to the quota impofed upon them; but this deficiency was occafioned by a feason of uncommon drought, by which the cotton-crop had been materially injured.

Salt, much of which is brought from Rembang to Batavia, is equally an article of trade for the Company, who difpofe of it for a handfome profit at Sumatra's west coast.

Another product of the country is indigo, which is mostly shipped to Europe. The culture of the plant which produces this dye || is profecuted with vigour in the province of Jaccatra. In the year 1768, the natives were affeffed at fix thousand one hundred and twenty-five pounds, though they only furnished two thousand eight hundred and feventy-five pounds.

Fourteen thousand tons, or two hundred and eighty thousand cwt. TR. + Saccharum officinarum.

Coffea.

Mr. Stavorinus corrects this ftatement, with refpect to the price, in his fecond voyage, where he informs us, that the rate at which the Company paid for the coffee was four rix-dollars per picol, being equal to about fourteen fhillings and five pence fterling per cwt ; but other accounts make this article ftand them in the fame proportion as the pepper, two pence halfpenny per pound, or about one pound two fhillings per cwt. the first is probably what is paid to the cultivator's and the last the invoice-value, being with the addition of the charges. TR.

Indigofera tinctoria.

Large

Large quantities of heavy timber are alfo brought from the north-east coast of Java, to Batavia. This is not, in reality, a branch of trade for the company; but it is of great importance for fhip building, and other purposes *.

From all this, the great importance of this ifland to the company, is very apparent. It produces fome of their moft confiderable articles of commerce, and provides the greatest part of their Indian poffeffions with food, not to fay any thing of the last mentioned advantage, of furnishing materials for fhip building.

The island is extremely abundant in fruit-bearing trees. In the first place, there is the cocoa-nut-palm †, which is well known. The furi-tree, which yields the palmwine, or toddy. China-oranges, of which there are two forts, one of a large, and the other of a smaller fize. The tamarind-tree §, whofe fruit confifts in pods, containing the tamarind, a fpungy substance, in which the beans or ftones are inclofed. The pompelmoes, or fhaddock |, the fruit of which is one of the most wholesome, on account of its refreshing quality and taste.

Next the durioon, or drioon-tree ¶, the fruit of which is inclosed in a hard fhell, of the fize of a man's head, and fometimes larger; it has a most disagreeable smell, which is extremely offenfive to those who have never eat of it; when once, however, the fruit is tafted, the loathing which its odour is apt to excite, is quickly overcome, and use makes it, in the end, fo familiar, that it is generally preferred beyond all other fruits. It is a strong stimulative, and is therefore much prized by the Chinese. The furfak-tree **, has a fruit of a fimilar kind with the durioon, but it is not accompanied by fuch a fetid fmell.

The mango-tree tt, deferves equally to be noticed; its fruit, when ripe, has a thin, oblong shape, and is about the fize of a goofe's egg. Its coat is not thick, of a yellow colour, and foft. When peeled, it has a fleshy fubftance. Within, it is of an orange colour, like a melon, with which its flavour has likewife fome analogy; but if the mango be a good one, it is much more delicious. In the centre, is a large kernel. When green, it is made into attjar ‡‡; for this, the kernel is taken out, and the space filled

* See the more ample account given of the articles of trade of Java, in book iv. chap. 1. of Mr. Staverrinus's fecond voyage. TR.

+ Cocos nucifera.

Citrus aurantium.

Tamarindus indica.

Citrus decumanus; the fhaddock is a large lemon, of the fize of a child's head; the juice is moderately acid, and quenches thirft; it is cooling, antifeptic and antifcorbutic. TR.

The botanical rank of the durioon though it is particularly noticed in Cook's voyage in the Endeavour, as well as by Dr. Thunburg, feems not to have been yet afcertained; the following account of the tree which produces it, from Marfden, may perhaps be helpful to the botanift: "The tree is large and lofty; the leaves are small in proportion, but in themselves long and pointed. The blofoms grow in clusters, on the stem and larger branches. The petals are five, of a yellowish white, furrounding five bunches of ftamina, each bunch containing about twelve, and each ftamen having four antheræ. The pointal is knobbed at top. When the ftamina and petals fall the empalement resembles a fungus, and is near the shape of a Scotch-bonnet. The fruit is not unlike the bread fruit, but larger and rougher on the outfide." It has by fome been confounded with the bread fruit. Dr. Thunburg fays, it is confidered as diuretic, aud fudorific, and ferviceable in expelling wind. TR.

**This seems to be the nanca, or jakes of Cooke, and the boa nanca (radermachia) of Thunburg; or what is commonly called the jack, by the English; at Batavia, it is generally of the fize of a large melon: its smell fomewhat resembles that of mellow apples, mixed with garlic: the outer coat is covered with angular prickles, and contains a number of feeds, or kernels (which, when roafted, eat like chefnuts) inclosed in a fleshy fubftance, of a rich, but to ftrangers, too ftrong a flavour, but which gains upon

the taste. TR.

++ Mangifera indica.

Articles preferved in vinegar, with pepper and other fpices, are called attjar; befides mangoes, the rind of melons, cucumbers, and in particular the aromatic roots of the bamboo tree, with various other roots, fruits and vegetables, are made into attjar. TR.