eft are very
rare; and they are so far from revenging a supposed injury by murder,
that if any difference arises between them, they will not so much as
make it the subject of debate, lest they should be provoked to
resentment and ill-will, but immediately and implicitly refer it to the
determination of their king.

They appeared to be a healthy and long-lived people; yet some of them
were marked with the small-pox, which Mr Lange told us had several times
made its appearance among them, and was treated with the same precaution
as the plague. As soon as a person was seized with the distemper, he
was removed to some solitary place, very remote from any habitation,
where the disease was left to take its course, and the patient supplied
with daily food by reaching it to him at the end of a long pole.

Of their domestic economy we could learn but little: In one instance,
however, their delicacy and cleanliness are very remarkable. Many of us
were ashore here three successive days, from a very early hour in the
morning till it was dark; yet we never saw the least trace of an
offering to Cloacina, nor could we so much as guess where they were
made. In a country so populous this is very difficult to be accounted
for, and perhaps there is no other country in the world where the secret
is so effectually kept.

The boats in use here are a kind of proa.

This island was settled by the Portugueze almost as soon as they first
found their way into this part of the ocean; but they were in a short
time supplanted by the Dutch. The Dutch however did not take possession
of it, but only sent sloops to trade with the natives, probably for
provisions to support the inhabitants of their spice islands, who,
applying themselves wholly to the cultivation of that important article
of trade, and laying out all their ground in plantations, can breed few
animals: Possibly their supplies by this occasional traffic were
precarious; possibly they were jealous of being supplanted in their
turn; but however that be, their East India Company, about ten years
before, entered into a treaty with the rajas, by which the Company
stipulated to furnish each of them with a certain quantity of silk, fine
linen, cutlery ware, arrack, and other articles, every year; and the
rajas engaged that neither they nor their subjects should trade with any
person except the Company, without having first obtained their consent,
and that they would admit a resident on behalf