Batavia
Index
Search
Contact us
of the water to her and eat what she brought; he was, she said, not like other crocodiles but hansomer his body being spotted and his nose red, moreover he had bracelets of Gold on his feet, and ear rings of the same metal in his ears. I heard her out patiently without finding fault with the absurdity of her giving ears to a crocodile. While I am writing this my Servant, who I hird at Batavia and is a mongrel between a Duch man and Javan woman, tells me that he has seen at Batavia a crocodile of this kind; it was about 2 feet long being very young, Many both Malays and Dutch saw it at the same time, it had gold bracelets on. Ah, said I, why such a one at Batavia told me of one which had Ear rings likewise, and you know that a crocodile has no ears. Ah but, said he, these Sudara Oran are different from other Crocodiles; they have 5 toes on each foot, and a large tongue which fills their mouth, and they have ears also but they are very small. So far will a popular Error deceive people unusd to examine into the truth of what they are told.
The Bougis, Macassars and Boetons,
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 500, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-426.html