of Sumatra, without the east entrance of the streight, or at Mew Bay, which lies only a few leagues from Prince’s Island, at neither of which places any considerable quantity of other refreshments can be procured.  Prince’s Island is, upon the whole, certainly more eligible than either of them; and though the water is brackish if it is filled at the lower part of the brook, yet higher up it will be found excellent.

The first and second, and perhaps the third ship that comes in the season, may be tolerably supplied with turtle; but those that come afterwards must be content with small ones.  Those that we bought were of the green kind, and at an average cost us about a half-penny or three farthings a pound.  We were much disappointed to find them neither fat nor well flavoured; and we imputed it to their having been long kept in crawls or pens of brackish water, without food.  The fowls are large, and we bought a dozen of them for a Spanish dollar, which is about five-pence a-piece:  The small deer cost us two-pence a-piece, and the larger, of which two only were brought down, a rupee.  Many kinds of fish are to be had here, which the natives sell 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 promiscuously, one hundred and thirty.  Plantains we found in great plenty:  We procured also some pine-apples, water melons, jaccas, and pumpkins; besides rice, the greater part of which was of the mountain kind, that grows on dry land; yams, and several other vegetables, at a very reasonable rate.

The inhabitants are Javanese, whose Raja is subject to the Sultan of Bantam.  Their customs are very similar to those of the Indians about Batavia; but they seem to be more jealous of their women, for we never saw any of them during all the time we were there, except one by chance in the woods, as she was running away to hide herself.  They profess the Mahometan religion, but I believe there is not a mosque in the whole island:  We were among them during the fast, which the Turks call Ramadan, which they seemed to keep with great rigour, for not one of them would touch a morsel of victuals, or even chew their betel, till sun-set.

Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except the addition of the nuts of the palm, called Cycas circinalis, with which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick, and some of our hogs poisoned.

Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told us, that, they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the sun; then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards, pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when they mix them with their rice to make it go farther.