Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/384

322 All the dishes were seasoned very highly with pepper, pimento and ginger. Rice served us in the place of bread, and the entertainment concluded with a plentiful desert of excellent fruit.

We soon set forward on our journey, and were overtaken by a heavy rain, which put us to great inconvenience. A serjeant of the Dutch troop gave us a proof of his authority over the Javanese, who returned to the village we had left, by taking out of their hands the umbrellas which they had brought with them; none of them daring to resist. We did not know what he intended to do with them, till he came up and offered them to us, saying, that he thought it very presumptuous in these men to shelter themselves from the rain, while they saw us exposed to it; but to his great surprise, none of us would make use of the umbrellas, but desired him to return them to the owners.

At length we arrived at the village of Poron, where we were received by the chief, who bears the title of Deman. His principal office is to apportion to the natives their daily tasks of labour.

The country through which we had passed is a vast plain, in which rice is principally cultivated. The plantations were already covered with six or eight inches of water, retained by the earthen mounds with which they were surrounded.