Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0580
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[Page 580]
476.
Some account of Batavia
method unknown to me, which causes it to keep 36 or 48 hours instead of only 12, in this state it is sweet & pleasant, only tasting a little of smoak, which tho at first disagreable becomes pleasant agreable by use, & not at all intoxicating, it Calld Tuackmanise or sweet palm wine, the other two, one of which is calld Tuack cras, & the other Tuack cunings, are prepard by laying certain herbs & roots in them, & then fermenting, so that their taste is alterd from sweet to rather astringent & disagreable taste, & they have acquird the property of intoxicating in a pretty high degree, besides this they have Tuack from the Cocoanut tree, but very little of this is drank as a liquor, it being mostly us'd for putting into the arrack, in which when intended to be good it is a necessary ingredient
Next to eating & drinking & one more delicious as well as less blameable luxury, the inhabitants of this part of India seem to place their cheif Delight in sweet smells, of Burning rosins &c. & sweet scented woods, but more than all in sweet flowers, of which they have several sorts very different from ours in Europe, of which