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Batavia
Each person for Lodging & eating two Rix dollars or 8s/ pr Diem for this he agreed as we were five of us who would probably have many visitants from the Ship to keep us a seperate table for each stranger we were to pay one Rix dollar 4s/ for dinner & another for supper & bed if he staid ashore we were to have also for selves &freinds Tea, Coffee, Punch, & Pipes & tobacco as much as we could destroy in short every thing the house afforded except wine & beer which we were to pay for at the following rates
Claret ....... 39 Stivers 3s/3d
Hock ........ 1 Ryxr 4/-
Lisbon ..... 39 ....... 3/3
Sweet wine.. 39..... 3/3
Madera ...... 1 Rupee 2/6
Beer............ 1 Rupee 2/6
Spa Water..... 1 Ryxr 4/
Besides this we were to pay for our Servants a rupee 1/3 a day each.
For these rates, which we soon found to be more than double the common charges of Boarding and lodging in the town, we were furnishd with a Table which under the appearance of Magnificence was wretchedly coverd; indeed Our dinners and suppers consisted of one course each, the one of fifteen the other of thirteen dishes, of which when you came to examine seldom less than 9 or 10 were of Bad Poultrey roasted, boild, fryd, stewd &c.&c. and so little concience had they in serving up dishes over and over again that I have seen the same identical roasted Duck appear upon table 3 times as a roasted duck before he found his way into the fricassee, from whence he was again to Pass into forcemeat.
This treatment however was not without remedy: we found that it was the constant