er and fresher than those of thirty at Batavia.
They are, in general, of a very delicate make, and
of an extremely fair complexion j but the tints of
vermillion, which embellish our northern ladies, are
wholly absent from their cheeks; the skin of their
face and hands is of the most deadly pale white.
Beauties must not be sought amongst them j the
handsomest whom I saw would scarcely be thought
middling pretty in Europe.
“ They have very supple joints, and can turn
their fingers, hands, and arms, in almost every direction
; but this they have in common with the
women in the West Indies, and in other tropical
climates.
“ They are commonly of a listless and lazy temper
; but this ought chiefly to be ascribed to their
education, and the number of slaves, of both sexes,
that they always have to wait upon them.
“ They rise about half past seven, or eight
o’clock in the morning. They spend the forenoon
in playing and toying with their female slaves,
whom they are never without, and in laughing and
talking with them, while a few moments afterwards,
they will have the poor creatures whipt most unmercifully
for the merest trifle. They loll, in a
loose and airy dress, upon a sofa, or sit upon a low
stool, or upon the ground, with their legs crossed
under them. In the mean time, they do not
omit the chewing of pinang or betel, with which
custom all the Indian women are infatuated; they
likewise masticate the Java tobacco j this makes
their spittle of a crimson colour, and when they
have done it long, they get a black border along
their lips, their teeth become black, and their
mouths are very disagreeable, though it is pretended
that this use purifies the mouth, and preserves
from the toothach.
“ As the Indian women are really not deficient
in powers of understanding, they would become
very useful members of society, endearing wives,
and good mothers, if they were but kept from familiarity
with the slaves in their infancy, and educated
under the immediate eye of their parents,
who should be assiduous to inculcate, in their tender
minds, the principles of true morality, and polished
manners. But, alas! the parents are far
from taking such a burthensome task upon them*
selves. As soon as the child is born, they abandon
it to the care of a female slave, who generally
suckles it, and by whom it is reared, till it attains
the age of nine or ten years. These nurses are
often but one remove above a brute, in point of intellect
; and the little innocents imbibe, with their
milk, all the prejudices and superstitious notions,
which disgrace the minds of their attendants, and
which are never eradicated during the remainder of
their lives, but seem to stamp them rather wi|h
VOL, I. K