he want of wine; but, as if the prohibition of their
law respected only the manner of becoming drunk, and not drunkenness
itself, they chew opium, to the total subversion not only of their
understanding, but their health.[148]

[Footnote 148: Besides opium, both betel and a sort of tobacco is much
used by most people at Batavia. A lady scarcely ever goes out unattended
by a slave, who carries her betel box, to which she very frequently has
recourse. The constant use of this substance has a very unpleasant (i.
e. according to European opinion) effect on the teeth, rendering them
quite black! This, however, is not thought any disparagement of their
beauty, and it is believed that the toothache is prevented by the
practice of chewing. A few additional remarks on this subject are given
in the following section.--E.]

The arrack that is made here, is too well known to need a description:
Besides which, the palm yields a wine of the same kind with that which
has already been described in the account of the island of Savu: It is
procured from the same tree, in the same manner, and is sold in three
states. The first, in which it is called _Tuac manise_, differs little
from that in which it comes from the tree; yet even this has received
some preparation altogether unknown to us, in consequence of which it
will keep eight-and-forty hours, though otherwise it would spoil in
twelve: In this state it has an agreeable sweetness, and will not
intoxicate. In the other two states it has undergone a fermentation, and
received an infusion of certain herbs and roots, by which it loses its
sweetness, and acquires a taste very austere and disagreeable. In one of
these states it's called _Tuac cras_, and in the other _Tuac cuning_,
but the specific difference I do not know; in both, however, it
intoxicates very powerfully. A liquor called Tuac is also made from the
cocoa-nut tree, but this is used chiefly to put into the arrack, for in
that which is good it is an essential ingredient.

SECTION XXXIX.

_Some Account of the Inhabitants of Batavia, and the adjacent Country,
their Manners, Customs, and Manner of Life_.

The town of Batavia, although, as I have already observed, it is the
capital of the Dutch dominions in India, is so far from being peopled
with Dutchmen, that not one-fifth part, even of the European inhabitants
of the town, and its environs, are natives of Holland, or of Dutch
extraction: The greater part are Portuguese