24. Nanca. This fruit, which in some parts of India is called Jack, has, like the Durion, a smell very disagreeable to strangers, and somewhat resembling that of mellow apples mixed with garlic: the flavour is not more adapted to the general taste. In some countries that are favourable to it, it is said to grow to an immense size. Rumphius relates, that it is sometimes so large that a man cannot easily lift it; and we were told by a Malay, that at Madura it is sometimes so large as not to be carried but by the united efforts of two men. At Batavia, however, they never exceed the size of a large melon, which in shape they very much resemble: they are covered with angular prickles, like the shootings of some chrystals, which however are not hard enough to wound those who handle them.

25. Champada. This differs from the Nanca in little except size, it not being so big.

26. Rambutan. This is a fruit little known to Europeans; in appearance it very much resembles a chesnut with the husk on, and like that, is covered with small points, which are soft and of a deep red colour: under this skin is the fruit, and within the fruit a stone; the eatable part therefore is small in quantity, but its acid is perhaps more agreeable than any other in the whole vegetable kingdom.

Voyaging Accounts