chamber in
which they sleep breathes the richest and purest of all odours,
unallayed by the fumes which cannot but arise where the sleeper lies
under two or three blankets and a quilt, for the bed covering here is
nothing more than a single piece of fine chintz.

Before I close my account of the vegetable productions of this part of
India, I must take some notice of the spices. Java originally produced
none but pepper. This is now sent from hence into Europe to a great
value, but the quantity consumed here is very small: The inhabitants use
_Capsicum_, or, as it is called in Europe, Cayan pepper, almost
universally in its stead. Cloves and nutmegs, having been monopolized by
the Dutch, are become too dear to be plentifully used by the other
inhabitants of this country, who are very fond of them. Cloves, although
they are said originally to have been the produce of Machian, or
Bachian, a small island far to the eastward, and only fifteen miles to
the northward of the line, and to have been from thence disseminated by
the Dutch, at their first coming into these parts, over all the eastern
islands, are now confined to Amboina, and the small isles that lie in
its neighbourhood; the Dutch having, by different treaties of peace
between them and the conquered kings of all the other islands,
stipulated, that they should have only a certain number of trees in
their dominions; and in future quarrels, as a punishment for
disobedience and rebellion, lessened the quantity, till at last they
left them no claim to any. Nutmegs have in a manner been extirpated in
all the islands except their first native soil, Banda, which easily
supplies every nation upon earth, and would as easily supply every
nation in another globe of the same dimensions, if there was any such
to which the industrious Hollander could transport the commodity: It is,
however, certain, that there are a few trees of this spice upon the
coast of New Guinea. There may perhaps be both cloves and nutmegs upon
other islands to the eastward; for those, neither the Dutch, nor any
other European, seem to think it worth while to examine.

The principal tame quadrupeds of this country, are horses, cattle,
buffaloes, sheep, goats, and hogs The horses are small, never exceeding
in size what we call a stout galloway, but they are nimble and spirited,
and are reported to have been found here when the Europeans first came
round the Cape of Good Hope. The horned cattle are said to b