Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0557
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 557]
453.
Some account of Batavia
pretty plentifully supplyd, with Deer of two kinds, & wild hogs, both which are very good meat, & often shot by the Portugese, who sell them tolerably cheap, Monkeys also there are tho but few in the Neighbourhood of Batavia.
On the mountains & in the more desert part of the Island, are Tygers it is said in too great abundance, & some Rhinocerosses, but neither of these animals are ever heard of in the Neighbourhood of Batavia, or indeed any well peopled part of the Island
Fish are in immense plenty, many sorts of them very excellent, & inconceiveably cheap, But the Dutch, true to the dictates of Luxury, buy none but those which are scarce, we who in the course of our long migration in the warm latitudes, had learnd the real excellence of many of the cheapest sorts, wonderd much at seeing them the food of none but Slaves, on enquiry however of a sensible housekeeper, he told us, that he as well as us knew, that for 1 shilling he could purchase a better dish of fish than