Page 395

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

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Batavia (continued) a smell very disagreable to strangers, like very mellow apples with a little garlick; the taste however in my opinion makes amends for the smell, tho I must say that among us English I beleive I was single in that opinion. Authors tell strange Stories of the immence size to which this fruit grows in some countries which are favourable to it: Rumphius says that they are sometimes so large that a man can not easily lift one of them; the Malays told me that at Madura they were so large that two men could but carry one of them; at Batavia however they never exceed the size of a large melon, which in shape they resemble, but are coated over with angular spines like the shootings of some Chrystals, which however are soft and do not at all prick any one who handles them. 25. Tsjampada differs from Nanka in little else than size. 26. Rambútan is a fruit seldom mentiond by Europeans; it is in appearance much like a Chestnut with the husk on, being like it coverd with soft prickles, but smaller and of a deep red colour; when eat this skin must be cut, and under Voyaging Accounts © Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 469, February 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-395.html