Rice, which is well known to be the corn of these countries, and to serve the inhabitants instead of bread, grows in great plenty: and I must here observe, that in the hilly parts of Java, and in many of the eastern islands, a species of this grain is planted, which in the western parts of India is intirely unknown. It is called by the natives Paddy Gunung, or Mountain rice; this, contrary to the other sort which must be under water three parts in four of the time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills where no water hut rain can come: it is however planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and reaped in the beginning of the dry. How far this kind of rice might be useful in our West Indian islands, where no bread corn is grown, it may perhaps be worth while to enquire.

Voyaging Accounts