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, accompanied 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 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. In the 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.
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, he 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 inquiries 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 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 twopence 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: a few of them however were open, for at this time the people had taken up their residence in the rice-grounds, 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, which he graciously received. They had much conversation, in the course of which his Majesty inquired, 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-and-twenty 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 my departure, lies in latitude 6° 49ʹ S., longitude 253° 12ʹ W.
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 Strait 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 Strait, 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 above fivepence a piece: the small deer cost us twopence 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 promiscously, one hundred and thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty; we procured also some pine-apples, water-melons, jaccas, and pumkins; 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 Javenese, 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.