Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/447

1770 cheapest sorts, wondered much at seeing them the food of none but slaves. On inquiry, however, of a sensible housekeeper, he told us that he, as well as we, knew that for one shilling he could purchase a better dish of fish than he did for ten. "But," said he, "I dare not do it, for should it be known that I did so, I should be looked upon in the same light as one in Europe who covered his table with offal fit for nothing but beggars or dogs." Turtle is here also in abundance, but despised by Europeans; indeed, for what reason I know not, it is neither so sweet nor so fat as our West Indian turtle, even in England. They have also a kind of large lizard or iguana, some of which are said to be as thick as a man's thigh. I shot one about five feet long, and it proved very good meat.

Poultry is prodigiously plentiful; very large fowls, ducks, and geese are cheap; pigeons are rather dear and turkeys extravagant. In general, those we ate at Batavia were lean and dry, but this I am convinced proceeds from their being ill-fed, as I have eaten every kind there as good or better than commonly met with in Europe.

Wild fowl are in general scarce. I saw during my stay one wild duck in the fields, but never one to be sold. Snipe, however, of two kinds, one exactly the same as in Europe, and a kind of thrush, are plentifully sold every day by the Portuguese, who, for I know not what reason, seem to monopolise the wild game.

Nor is the earth less fruitful of vegetables than she is of animals. Rice, which everybody knows is to the inhabitants of these countries the common corn, serving instead of bread, is very plentiful: one kind of it is planted here, and in many of the eastern islands, which in the western parts of India is totally unknown. It is called by the natives paddy gunang, that is, mountain rice; this, unlike the other sort, which must be under water three parts of the time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills, where no water but rain can possibly come. They take, however, the advantage of planting it in the beginning of the rainy season, by which means they reap it in the beginning of the