[127] Thompson’s London Dispensatory. 8vo. p. 532.
[128] The Trial Rocks are thus mentioned in the “Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier,” published in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, page 448.
“Dampier intended once more to attempt New Holland in about 20°. Here he found soundings at forty fathoms, but did not see the land; and steered westward, to search for the Trial Rocks, (so named from an English ship called the Trial having been wrecked upon them many years before,) which were supposed to lie in this parallel, and about eighty leagues westward of the coast. But Captain Dampier was sick, and unable to maintain perpetual watch himself, and the officers inefficient and careless, so that this important point was not ascertained.”
[129] These are certainly the most delicate and beautiful of the oceanic birds; their peculiar shrill, raucous note indicates their presence about the ship; hovering over the vessel, or darting into the water in pursuit of prey, and as the sun shines upon the chaste and elegant plumage of the white species, or the rosy-tinted feathers of the red species, or phœnicurus, their beauty is increased.
[130] Some ships, seeking freights, anchor outside the roads, by which it seems the port charges are saved; and then anchor in the roadstead, if they consider there is a sufficient inducement for them to remain at this port.
[131] The “far-famed Mangoosteen” is certainly an agreeable fruit, but still I cannot join the various writers who have lavished such praises upon it—it may be want of taste in me; and probably the fruit will still retain “its luscious qualities, surpassing all other fruits in the world, combining the excellence of the whole;” but I must candidly confess that I am not so great an admirer of this or other tropical fruits, although I at the same time allow many to have excellent flavour, yet none can bear comparison with the delightful acidulated European fruits; and the Mangoosteen is even, in my opinion, beneath the orange or pine-apple, although still a very agreeable fruit.
[132] At Singapore, observing one of these monkeys in a stable, I inquired if Java horses were kept there; the answer was in the affirmative; so Jacko was probably imported with the horses to keep them in health.
[133] The Malay name for Weltervreden is “Pasārsānan,” which signifies Monday market, (Pasār, market; sānan, Monday.)
[134] This plant emits its fragrant smell powerfully after sunset, and has been “observed in a sultry evening, after thunder, when the atmosphere was highly charged with electric fluid, to dart small sparks, or scintillations of lucid flame, in great abundance from such of its flowers as were fading.”—Edin. Philos. Journal, vol. iii. p. 415.
[135] This officer, now a captain in the army, and by all accounts an excellent and brave soldier, I saw at the same time at this hotel, where he at present resided; he appeared attached to Santot, and they conversed much together; he had lately returned from the Sumatran coast, having been recently employed in the war in the interior of that island.