The Malays and Chinese have judicial officers of their own, under the denominations of captains and lieutenants, who determine in civil cases, subject to an appeal to the Dutch court. The taxes paid by these people to the Company are very considerable; and that which is exacted of them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no means the least. They are paid monthly, and, to save the trouble and charge of collecting them, a flag is hoisted upon the top of a house in the middle of the town when a payment is due, and the Chinese have experienced that it is their interest to repair thither with their money without delay. The money current here consists of ducats, worth a hundred and thirty-two stivers; ducatoons, eighty stivers; imperial rix-dollars, sixty; rupees of Batavia, thirty; schellings, six; double cheys, two stivers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. Spanish dollars, when we were here, were at five shillings and five-pence; and we were told, that they were never lower than five shillings and fourpence, even at the Company's warehouse. For English guineas we could never get more than nineteen shillings upon an average; for though the Chinese would give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they would give no more than seventeen shillings for those that were much worn. It may perhaps be of some advantage to strangers to be told that there are two kinds of coin here, of the same denomination, milled and unmilled, and that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon is worth eighty stivers; but an unmilled ducatoon is worth no more than seventytwo. All accounts are kept in rix-dollars and stivers, which, here at least, are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. The rix-dollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about four shillings and six-pence English currency.'s SECTION 15 The reader need scarcely be informed, that the statements given in the text as to the respective value of the coin, are fitted to the circumstances of the period at which the account of the voyage was published. It was thought unnecessary to correct them to the present times in this place.-E. SECTION XL. The Passage from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope. Some Account of Prince's Island and its Inhabitants. Our Arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. Some Remarks on the Run from Java Head to that Place, and to Saint Helena. The Return of the Ship to England. ON Thursday the 27th of December, at six o'clock in the morning, we weighed again and stood out to sea. After much delay by contrary winds, we weathered Pulo Pare on the 29th, and stood in for the main: Soon after, we fetched a small island under the main, in the midway between Batavia and Bantam, called Maneater's Island. The next day, we weathered first Wapping Island, and then Pulo Babi. On the 31st, we stood over to the Sumatra shore; and on the morning of new-year's-day, 1771, we stood over for the Java shore. We continued our course as the wind permitted us till three o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th, when we anchored under the south-east side of Prince's Island in eighteen fathom, in order to recruit our wood and water, and procure refreshments for the sick, many of whom were now become much worse than they were when we left Batavia. As soon as the ship was secured, I went ashore, accompa nied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, and we were met upon the beach by some Indians, who carried us immediately to a man, who, they said, was their king. After we had exchanged a few compliments with his majesty, we proceeded to business; but in settling the price of turtle we could not agree: This however did not discourage us, as we made no doubt but that we should buy them at our own price in the morning. As soon as we parted, the Indians dispersed, and we proceeded along the shore in search of a watering-place. In this we were more successful; we found VOL. XIII. 2 G The original contains some remarks on the language of Prince's Island, and a comparative view of it with the Malay and Javanese. These have been omitted, because another opportunity will present of treating the subject more fully than could be done here, without anticipating information which belongs to another place. Much additional light has been thrown on this interesting topic since the date of this navigation.-E. found water very conveniently situated, and, if a little care was taken in filling it, we had reason to believe that it would prove good. Just as we were going off, some Indians, who remained with a canoe upon the beach, sold us three turtle, but exacted a promise of us that we should not tell the king. The next morning, while a party was employed in filling water, we renewed our traffic for turtle: At first, the Indians dropped their demands slowly, but about noon they agreed to take the price that we offered, so that before night we had turtle in plenty: The three that we had purchased the evening before, were in the mean time served to the ship's company, who, till the day before, had not once been served with salt provisions from the time of our arrival at Savu, which was now near four months. evening, Mr Banks went to pay his respects to the king, at his palace, in the middle of a rice field, and though his majesty was busily employed in dressing his own supper, he received the stranger very graciously. In the The next day, the natives came down to the trading place, with fowls, fish, monkies, small deer, and some vegetables, but no turtle; for they said that we had bought them all the day before. The next day, however, more turtle appeared at market, and some were brought down every day afterwards, during our stay, though the whole, together, was not equal to the quantity that we bought the day after our arrival. On the 11th, Mr Banks having learnt from the servant whom he had hired at Batavia, that the Indians of this island had a town upon the shore, at some distance to the westward, determined to see it. With this view he set out in the morning, accompanied by the second lieutenant; and as he had some reason to think that his visit would not be agreeable to the inhabitants, he told the people whom he met, as he was advancing along the shore, that he was in search of plants, which indeed was also true. In about two hours they arrived at a place where there were four or five houses, and meeting with an old man, they ventured to make some enquiries concerning the town. He said that it was far distant; but they were not to be discouraged in their enterprize, and he, seeing them proceed in their journey, joined company and went on with them. He attempted several times to lead them out of the way, but without without success; and at length they came within sight of the houses. The old man then entered cordially into their party, and conducted them into the town. The name of it is Samadang; it consists of about four hundred houses, and is divided by a river of brackish water into two parts, one of which is called the old town, and the other the new. As soon as they entered the old town, they met several Indians whom they had seen at the trading-place, and one of them undertook to carry them over to the new town, at the rate of two-pence a-head. When the bargain was made, two very small canoes were produced, in which they embarked; the canoes being placed along-side of each other, and held together, a precaution which was absolutely necessary to prevent their oversetting, the navigation was at length safely performed, though not without some difficulty; and when they landed in the new town, the people received them with great friendship, and showed them the houses of their kings and principal people, which are in this district: Few of them, however, were open, for at this time the people had taken up their residence in the ricegrounds, to defend the crop against the birds and monkies, by which it would otherwise have been destroyed. When their curiosity was satisfied, they hired a large sailing boat for two rupees, four shillings, which brought them back to the ship time enough to dine upon one of the small deer, weighing only forty pounds, which had been bought the day before, and proved to be very good and savoury meat. We went on shore in the evening, to see how the people who were employed in wooding and watering went on, and were informed that an axe had been stolen. As the passing over this fault might encourage the commission of others of the same kind, application was immediately made to the king, who, after some altercation, promised that the axe should be restored in the morning; and kept his word, for it was brought to us by a man who pretended that the thief, being afraid of a discovery, had privately brought it and left it at his house in the night. " We continued to purchase between two and three hundred weight of turtle in a day, besides fowls and other necessaries; and in the evening of the 13th, having nearly completed our wood and water, Mr Banks went ashore to take leave of his majesty, to whom he had made several trifling presents, and at parting gave him two quires of paper, paper, which he graciously received. They had much conversation, in the course of which his majesty enquired, why the English did not touch there as they had been used to do. Mr Banks replied, that he supposed it was because they found a deficiency of turtle, of which there not being enough to supply one ship, many could not be expected. To supply this defect, he advised his majesty to breed cattle, buffaloes, and sheep, a measure which he did not seem much inclined to adopt. On the 14th, we made ready to sail, having on board a good stock of refreshments, which we purchased of the natives, consisting of turtle, fowl, fish, two species of deer, one as big as a sheep, the other not larger than a rabbit; with cocoa-nuts, plantains, limes, and other vegetables, The deer, however, served only for present use, for we could seldom keep one of them alive more than four-andtwenty hours after it was on board. On our part, the trade was carried on chiefly with Spanish dollars, the natives seeming to set little value upon any thing else; so that our people, who had a general permission to trade, parted with old shirts and other articles, which they were obliged to substitute for money, to great disadvantage. In the morning of the 15th, we weighed, with a light breeze at N.E. and stood out to sea. Java Head, from which I took departure, lies in latitude 6° 49′ S., longitude 253° 12′ W. my Prince's Island, where we lay about ten days, is, in the Malay language, called Pulo Selan, and in the language of the inhabitants, Pulo Paneitan. It is a small island, situated in the western mouth of the Streight of Sunda. It is woody, and a very small part of it only has been cleared: "There is no remarkable hill upon it, yet the English call the small eminence which is just over the landing-place the Pike. It was formerly much frequented by the India ships of many nations, but especially those of England, which of late have forsaken it, as it is said, because the water is bad; and touch either at North Island, a small island that lies on the coast 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 ་་ |