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Article REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. ← Page 3 of 8 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of New Publications.
or governor , who lives in another fort adjoining the town , and nearer to the sea side . ... Bis Banramese Majesty is allowed , however , to maintain a body of native troops , and has several small armed vessels , by means of" which he maintains authority over some part of the south of Sumatra . Kis subje & s are obliged to sell to him all the pepper they raise in either island , at a low price , which he is under contrail : with the Dutch to deliver to them
at a small advance , and much under the marketable value of that commodity . The present King joins the spiritual to the temporal power , and is hig h-priest of the religion of Mahomet ; vv . th which he mingles , indeed , some of rhe rites and superstitions of the aborig inal inhabitants of Java , adoring , for instance , the great banyan , or Indian fig-tree , which'is likewise held sacred in Hindostan , and under which religious rites might be conveniently performed ; in like manner as all ari ' airs of state are actually
transacted by the B mtamese , under some shadowing tree , by moon-light . Upon application to his Majesty , through the Dutch chief , he immediately dispatched two of his armed vessels to Sumatra , with orders to search for the perpetrators of the murder lately committed there ; and some time after the ships hail left this neighbourhood , intelligence was received that one of the guilty persons was discovered , and executed . ' On the 17 th of May the squadron anchored in a spacious bay in the island
of Pulo C . ndore , on which the English had a settlement till the beginning of the present century . Here a p uty went on shore , and were received by the inhabitants with great hospitality , who promised to furnish a necessary supply of provisions for the ships ; but on landing the next day , the peop le were surprised to find all the houses abandoned . At this time the crews were much affli & ed with disorders , and therefore ,
fresh provisions were greatly needed : On the a 6 th of May the ships anchored in Turbn bay , on the coast of Cochin-China . The appearance of the squadron at first created great alarm , but when its destination was known , the most respectful attention was paid to it . A singular instance of agility in some Cochin-Chinese young men is thus related . ' Seven or eight of them , standing in a circle , were engaged in a game of shittle-cock . . They had in their hands no battledores . They
did not employ the hand or arms , any way , in striking it . But , after taking a short race , and springing from the floor , they met the descending shittle-cock with the sole of the foot , and drove it up again , with force , high into the air . It was , thus , kept up a considerable time ; the players seldom missing their stroke , or failing to give it the direction they intended . The shittle-cock was made of a piece of dried skin , rolled round , and bound with strings . Into this skin w » -re inserted three long feathers , spreading
out at top , but so near to each other , when they were stuck into the skin , as to pass through the holes , little more than a quarter of an inch square , which are always made in the centre of Cochin-Chinese copper coins . Two or three of these served as a weight at the bottom of the shittle-cock , and . their sound gave notice to the players , when it was approaching to them . ' Among objects of natural curiosity , accident led to the observation of some swarms of uncommon insects , busily employed upon small branches
of a shrub , then neither in fruit or flower , but in its general habit bearing somewhat the appearance of a privet ; . These insects , each not inuch exceeding the size of the domestic fly , weve of a curious strufture , having paginated appendages rising in a curve , bending towards the head , not unlike the form of the tail feathers of the common fowl , but in the opposite direction . Every part of the insect was in colour of a perfect white , or at ! e .: st completely covered with a white powder . The particular stein .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of New Publications.
or governor , who lives in another fort adjoining the town , and nearer to the sea side . ... Bis Banramese Majesty is allowed , however , to maintain a body of native troops , and has several small armed vessels , by means of" which he maintains authority over some part of the south of Sumatra . Kis subje & s are obliged to sell to him all the pepper they raise in either island , at a low price , which he is under contrail : with the Dutch to deliver to them
at a small advance , and much under the marketable value of that commodity . The present King joins the spiritual to the temporal power , and is hig h-priest of the religion of Mahomet ; vv . th which he mingles , indeed , some of rhe rites and superstitions of the aborig inal inhabitants of Java , adoring , for instance , the great banyan , or Indian fig-tree , which'is likewise held sacred in Hindostan , and under which religious rites might be conveniently performed ; in like manner as all ari ' airs of state are actually
transacted by the B mtamese , under some shadowing tree , by moon-light . Upon application to his Majesty , through the Dutch chief , he immediately dispatched two of his armed vessels to Sumatra , with orders to search for the perpetrators of the murder lately committed there ; and some time after the ships hail left this neighbourhood , intelligence was received that one of the guilty persons was discovered , and executed . ' On the 17 th of May the squadron anchored in a spacious bay in the island
of Pulo C . ndore , on which the English had a settlement till the beginning of the present century . Here a p uty went on shore , and were received by the inhabitants with great hospitality , who promised to furnish a necessary supply of provisions for the ships ; but on landing the next day , the peop le were surprised to find all the houses abandoned . At this time the crews were much affli & ed with disorders , and therefore ,
fresh provisions were greatly needed : On the a 6 th of May the ships anchored in Turbn bay , on the coast of Cochin-China . The appearance of the squadron at first created great alarm , but when its destination was known , the most respectful attention was paid to it . A singular instance of agility in some Cochin-Chinese young men is thus related . ' Seven or eight of them , standing in a circle , were engaged in a game of shittle-cock . . They had in their hands no battledores . They
did not employ the hand or arms , any way , in striking it . But , after taking a short race , and springing from the floor , they met the descending shittle-cock with the sole of the foot , and drove it up again , with force , high into the air . It was , thus , kept up a considerable time ; the players seldom missing their stroke , or failing to give it the direction they intended . The shittle-cock was made of a piece of dried skin , rolled round , and bound with strings . Into this skin w » -re inserted three long feathers , spreading
out at top , but so near to each other , when they were stuck into the skin , as to pass through the holes , little more than a quarter of an inch square , which are always made in the centre of Cochin-Chinese copper coins . Two or three of these served as a weight at the bottom of the shittle-cock , and . their sound gave notice to the players , when it was approaching to them . ' Among objects of natural curiosity , accident led to the observation of some swarms of uncommon insects , busily employed upon small branches
of a shrub , then neither in fruit or flower , but in its general habit bearing somewhat the appearance of a privet ; . These insects , each not inuch exceeding the size of the domestic fly , weve of a curious strufture , having paginated appendages rising in a curve , bending towards the head , not unlike the form of the tail feathers of the common fowl , but in the opposite direction . Every part of the insect was in colour of a perfect white , or at ! e .: st completely covered with a white powder . The particular stein .