January 1771

1. Workd all night and today likewise. At night Anchord under a high Island call[d] in the draughts Cracatoa and by the Indians Pulo Racatta.

I had been unacountably troubled with Musquitos ever since we left Batavia, and still imagin'd that they increasd instead of decreasing, although my opinion was universaly thought improbable; today however the mystery was discoverd, for on getting up water today, D^r Solander who happned to stand near the scuttle cask observd an infinite number of them in their water state in it, who as soon as the sun had a little effect upon the water began to come out in real Effective mosquetos incredibly fast.

2. This morn when we rose we saw that there were many houses and much Cultivation upon Cracatoa, so that probably a ship might meet with refreshments who chose to touch here in preference to Princes Island. The wind was so foul and balkd us so often that after having saild the whole day we were glad at night to come back again to our old Birth under Cracatoa.

3. Tho we had again got under way in the night, Yet this morn we had gaind but little, nor did we much more all day; at night however a breeze sprung up at Se and we saild on Chearily.

4. Soon after Dinner time today we anchord under Princes Island and went ashore. The People who met us carried us immediately to a man whoom they told us was their king, with whoom after a few Compliments we proceeded to business, that was to settle the price of Turtle, in which we did not well agree. This however did not at all discourage us, as we doubted not but that in the morn we should have them at our own price, so we walkd a little way along shore and the Indians dispersd. One Canoe however remaind and just as we went off sold us three turtle on a promise that we should not tell the king.

5. Ashore today trading; the Indians dropd their demands very slowly but were very civil, towards noon however they came down to the offerd price, so that before night we had bought up a large quantity of Turtle. In the Evening I went to pay my respects to his majesty the king, who I found at his house in the middle of a rice feild cooking his own supper; he receivd me however very politely.

6. Many People were down at the trading place with fowls, fish, Monkeys, small Deer, &c. &c. but few or no Turtle, they said that we had bought them all the day before.

8.¹ In the Morn the ship which had in the night been driven something nearer the shore, was so near being ashore that the foot of the rudder touchd several times, and indeed gave the first intimation of our danger, but by the alertness of the officers she was hove into deep water in a very short time. The day was rainy throughout and very few Indians came to the watering place, so that nothing was bought but a few fish and fowls.

9. Fine weather today and rather more trade than usual. Early in the morn 8 guns were heard within Pepper point,² but no ship had been seen by either us or the Islanders so we could not even guess the Occasion of them.

10. Little trade; the people brought down a deer of a kind weighing about 40 lb;³ our stock of Turtle was now Considerably increasd, some few having been bought every day, tho the Joint number did not equal what had been bought the first day.

In the Evening when we went ashore we were acquainted that an axe had been stole from one of our people; this as the first theft we thought it not proper to pass over, so immediate application was made to the king, who after some time promisd that it should be returnd in the morn.

12. The hatchet was brought down according to promise, the theif they said afraid of conviction had in the night conveyd it into the house of the man who brought it. Trade as usual, 2 or 300 weight of Turtle in a day with fowls &c. Myself was this day seizd with a Return of my Batavia Fever, which I attributed to being much exposd to a burning sun in trading with the Natives.

13. It was resolvd to sail tomorrow, which the natives had been informd of yesterday, so they brought down rather more turtle than usual. My Fever returnd, but I resolvd not to atempt to cure it till in the main Ocean I should meet with a better air than this uncleard Island could possibly have.

In the Eve after my fit I went ashore to the king, to whoom time after time I had made small presents altogether not of 5 shillings value, carrying 2 Q^rs of Paper, which as he had done every thing else he most thankfully receivd. We had much conversation, the purport of which was his asking why the English ships did not touch here as they had usd to do; I told him that as they had not on the Island Turtle enough to supply one ship the[y] could not expect many, but advisd him to breed Cattle, Sheep and Buffaloes, which advise however he did not seem much to approve.

Princes Island as it is calld by the English, in Malay Pulo Selan, and in the language of its inhabitants Pulo paneitan¹ is a small Island situated in the Western mouth of the streights of Sunday; it is woody, and has no remarkable hill upon it, tho the English call the small one which is just over the anchoring place the Pike. This Island was formerly much frequented by India ships of many nations but especialy English, who have of late forsaken it on account it is said of the Badness of its water, and stop either at North Island, a small Island on the Sumatra Coast without the East Entrance of the Streights, or at New Bay,² a few leag[u]es only from Princes Island, at neither of which places however any quantity of refreshments can be procurd.

Its cheif produce is water, which is situated in such a manner that if you are not carefull in filling high enough up the Brook it will inevitably be brackish, from which circumstance alone I beleive it has got a Bad name with almost all nations; Turtle, of which however its supplys are not great, so that if a ship comes second or third in the season she must be contented with small ones, and no great plenty of them — as indeed was in some measure our case; we bought at very various prizes according to the humour of the people, but altogether I beleive they came to about 1 halfpenny or 3/4 a pound. They were of the Green kind, but not fat or well flavourd in any degree as they are in most other parts, which I beleive is in great measure owing to the people keeping them sometimes very long in crawls of Brackish water, where they have no kind of food given to them. Fowls are tolerably cheap, a dozen of large ones sold when we were there for a Spanish Dollar which is /5_d a peice. They have also plenty of Monkeys and small deer (moschus pygmaeus)³ the largest of which are not quite so big as a new faln Lamb, and another kind of Deer calld by them Munchack about the size of a sheep;⁴ the monkeys were about 1/2 a dollar 2/6, the small deer /2_d, the larger, of which they brought down only 2, a rupee or 2⁸/. Fish they have of many various kinds which are sold by hand as you can bargain, we found them however always tolerably cheap. Vegetables they have, Cocoa nuts a dollar for 100 if you chuse them or 130 if you take them as they come; Plantanes Plenty, some water melons, pine apples, Jaccas,⁵ Pumkins,

also Rice cheifly of the mountain sort which grows on dryland, Yams and several other vegetables all which are sold reasonably enough.

The inhabitants are Javans whose Radja is subject to the Sultan of Bantam, from whoom they receive orders and to whoom they possibly pay a tribute, but of that particular I am not certain. Their customs I beleive are very much like those of the Indians about Batavia, only they seem much more jealous of their women, so much so that I never saw one the whole time of our stay except she was running away full speed to hide herself in the woods. Their Religion is Mahometanism but I beleive they have not a Mosque upon the Island; they were however very strict in the observance of their Fast (the same as the Ramdan of the Turks) during which we hapned to come: not one would touch victuals till sun set or even chew their Betele, but 1/2 or an hour before all went home to cook the kettle nor would they stay for any thing but view of extrordinary profit.

Their food was nearly the same as the Batavian Indians, adding only to it the nuts of the Palm calld Cycas circinalis with which on the Coast of New Holland some of our people were made ill and some of our hogs Poisond outright.¹ Their method of preparing them to get out their deleterious qualities they told me were first to cut the nuts into thin slices and dry them in the sun, then to steep them in fresh water for three months, afterwards pressing the water from them and drying them in the sun once more; they however were so far from being a delicious food that they never usd them but in times of scarcity when they mixt the preparation with their rice.

Their Town which they calld Samadang consisted of about 300 houses; great part of the old town however was in ruins. Their houses were all built up on pillars 4 or 5 feet above the ground. The Plan of that of Gundang, a man who seemd to be next in riches and influence to the king, will give an Idea of them all: it was walld with boards, a luxury none but the king and himself had, but in no other respect differd from those of the midling people except being a little longer.

The walls were made of Bamboo platted on small perpendicular sticks fastned to the Beams; the floors were also of Bamboo, Each stick however laid at a small distance from the next so that the air had a free passage from below, by which means these houses were

¹ Banks seems to be mistaken here. Cycas circinalis is widespread in S. E. Asia, and the seeds are very poisonous before being suitably treated; but the Cycas media which did the damage on the Australian coast is a distinct species.

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a. the door. b. the window. c. the partition where the master and his wife sleep. d. the partition where the children sleep, c. where the victuals are cookd. f. where strangers or visitors sleep.

always cool; the thach of Palm leaves was always thick and strong so that neither rain nor sunbeams could find entrance through it.

When we were at the town there were very few inhabitants there; the rest livd in Ocasional houses built in the rice feilds where they watchd the crop to prevent the devastations of Monkies, birds, &c. These occasional houses are smaller than those of the town; the posts which support them also instead of being 4 or 5 feet in hight are 8 or 10, otherwise the divisions &c. are quite the same.

Their dispositions as far as we saw them were very good, at least they dealt very fairly with us upon all occasions: Indian like however, always asking double what they would take for whatever they had to dispose of. This however producd no inconvenencees to us who were us'd to this kind of trafick.

In making out Bargains they were very handy and supplyd the want of small money reasonably well by laying together a quantity of any thing, and when the price was settled dividing it among each other according to the proportion each had brought to the general stock. They would sometimes change our money, giving 240 doits for a Spanish dollar, that is 5⁸/ sterling, and 92, that is 2⁸/ sterling ¹ for a Bengall Rupee. The money they chose however was doits in all small bargains; dubblecheys they had but wer[e] very nice in taking them.

Their Language is different both from the Malay and Javan; they all however speak Malay.

Specimens Of Language

The Madagascar language has also som[e] words similar to Malay words, as ouron the nose, in Malay Erung Lala, the tongue Lida Tang, the hand Tangan Taan, the ground Tanna.

From this similitude of language Between the inhabitants of the Eastern Indies and the Islands in the South Sea I should have venturd to conjecture much did not Madagascar interfere; and how any Communication can ever have been carried between Madagascar and Java to make the Brown long haird people of the latter speak a language similar to that the Black wooly headed natives of the other is I confess far beyond my comprehension — unless the Egyptian Learning running in two courses, one through Africa the other through Asia, might introduce the same words, and what is still more probable Numerical terms, into the languages of people who never had any communication with each other. But this point requiring a depth of knowledge in Antiquities I must leave to Antiquarians to discuss.¹

14. Our intention of sailing this morn was delayd by want of wind, it being calm till 11 O'Clock when a gentle breeze sprang up which was favourable; the morning however was not thrown away for the Indians seeing us not gone brought fish and some Turtle which were bought. Our breeze tho favourable was however so slack that by night we had got no farther than abreast of the town where we anchord.

15. Weighd again and stood out to sea with a breeze so gentle that at night we were still in sight of Land.

17. Calms and light breezes still detaind us till eve when a pleasant breeze sprung up and gave us hopes of soon gaining the trade wind, which we impatiently longd for especialy myself who had my fever every day; nor was I the only sick man, many began to complain of purgings. Some tropick birds and Gannets (Pelecanus pisc) were seen.

18. In the Morn Rain with light breezes. Several Man of war birds and some shearwaters were about the ship.

19. Light breezes all day. A ship in sight but too far off to distinguish her colours.

20. Weather as usual. 2 ships in sight who shew'd us Dutch Colours and then saild ahead of us, letting us know that sure as our ship might be she was too slow to outsail even a Dutchman. Several tropick birds were seen. In the Even the wind came foul.

Myself who had began with the Bark Yesterday miss'd my fever today, the people however in general grew worse and many had now the dysentery or bloody flux.

21. The Wind remaind as it was but one of the Duchmen had so far outsaild us as to be intirely out of sight; the other however was not so much ahead but that we sometimes flatterd ourselves with thinking that we could sail as fast as her. Some few Gannets and porpoises were about the ship.

22. Our freind the slow Dutchman was this morn out of sight: the wind still foul. Almost all the Ships Company were now ill with either fluxes or severe, purgings; myself far from well, Mr Sporing very ill and Mr Parkinson very little better, his complaint was a slow fever.

23. Myself was too ill today to do any thing; one of our people died of the flux in the Evening.

24. My distemper this day turnd out to be a flux attended (as that disease always is) with excrutiating pains in my bowels, on which I took to my bed. In the Eve Mr Sporing died.

25. One more of the People died today. Myself endurd the pains of the Damnd almost; at night they became fixd in one point in my bowels on which the surgeon of the ship though[t] proper page 243 to order me the hot bath, into which I went 4 times at the intervals of two hours and felt great releif.

26. Tho better than yesterday my pains were still almost intolerable. In the Evening Mr Parkinson died and one of the ships crew.

28. Self something easier but still in great pain. This day Mr Green our astronomer and two of the people died, all of the very same complaint as I labourd under, no very encouraging circumstance.

29. Self still Bad; three more of the people died this day.

30. For the first time I found myself better and slept some time, which my continual pains had never sufferd me to do before notwistanding the opiates which were constantly administerd. One person only died today, but so weak were the people in general that, officers and men included, not more than 8 or nine could keep the deck so that 4 in a watch was all they had.

31. This day I got out of my bed in good spirits and free from pain but very weak. My recovery had been as rapid as my disease was violent, but to what cause to attribute either the one or the other to we all were equaly at a loss.

The wind which came to E and Se yesterday blew today in the same direction so we had little reason to doubt its being the true trade, a circumstance which raisd the spirits of even those who were most afflicted with the tormenting disease, which now ragd with its greatest violence.