Page 438

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

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Princes Island (continued) was in some measure our case; we bought at very various prizes according to the humour of the people, but altogether I beleive they came to about 1 halfpenny or _ a pound. They were of the Green kind, but not fat or well flavourd in any degree as they are in most other parts, which I beleive is in great measure owing to the people keeping them sometimes very long in crawls of Brackish water, where they have no kind of food given to them. Fowls are tolerably cheap, a dozen of large ones sold when we were there for a Spanish Dollar which is /5d a peice. They have also plenty of Monkeys and small deer (moschus pygmaeus) the largest of which are not quite so big as a new faln Lamb, and another kind of Deer calld by them Munchack about the size of a sheep; the monkeys were about ½ a dollar 2/6, the small deer /2d, the larger, of which they brought down only 2, a rupee or 2s/. Fish they have of many various kinds which are sold by hand as you can bargain, we found them however always tolerably cheap. Vegetables they have, Cocoa nuts a dollar for 100 if you chuse them or 130 if you take them as they come; Plantanes Voyaging Accounts © Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 520, February 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-438.html