I Then Went To Another Island Named Java, The Coast Of Which Is 3000 Miles In Circuit; And The King Of Java Has Seven Other Kings Under His Supreme Dominion.

This is thought to be one of the largest islands in the world, and is thoroughly inhabited; having great plenty of cloves, cubebs, and nutmegs, and all other kinds of spices, and great abundance of provisions of all kinds, except wine.

The king of Java has a large and sumptuous palace, the most lofty of any that I have seen, with broad and lofty stairs to ascend to the upper apartments, all the steps being alternately of gold and silver.

The whole interior walls are lined with plates of beaten gold, on which the images of warriors are placed sculptured in gold, having each a golden coronet richly ornamented with precious stones. The roof of this palace is of pure gold, and all the lower rooms are paved with alternate square plates of gold and silver. The great khan, or emperor of Cathay, has had many wars with the king of Java, but has always been vanquished and beaten back.

[1] More recent and more accurate travellers have informed us, that this profusion of gold, on the idols and temples of the Buddists, especially, is only rich gilding. - E.

[2] This seems properly enough corrected on the margin by Hakluyt, by the word Comori, or the country about Cape Comorin. - E.

[3] Simoltra or Sumatra. - Hakluyt.

[4] Probably alluding to tatooing, which will be explained in the voyages to the islands of the Pacific ocean. - E.

SECTION VII.

Of certain Trees which produce Meal, Honey, Wine, and Poison.

Near to Java is another country called Panten, or Tathalmasin[1], the king of which has many islands under his dominion. In this country there are trees which produce meal, honey, and wine, and likewise the most deadly poison in the world; the only remedy for which is human ordure dissolved in water, which, drank in considerable quantify, acts as a cathartic, and expels the poison. These trees are very large; and, when cut down, a quantity of liquor exudes from the trunk, which is received into bags made of leaves, and after exposure for fifteen days to the sun, it hardens into meal. This is first steeped in sea water, and is afterwards washed in fresh water, when it becomes a savoury paste, which may either be eaten as bread, or cooked in various ways[2]. I have eaten of this bread, which is fair on the outside, and somewhat brown within. Beyond this country, the Mare Mortuum, or Dead Sea[3], stretches with a continual current far to the south, and whatever falls into it is seen no more. In this country there grow canes of an incredible length, as large as trees, even sixty paces or more in height. There are other canes, called cassan, which spread over the earth like grass, even to the extent of a mile, sending up branches from every knot; and in these canes they find certain stones of wonderful virtue, insomuch, that whoever carries one of these about him, cannot be wounded by an iron weapon; on which account, most of the men in that country carry such stones always about them.

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