- l j f
ligi]
i l i
I s l a n d o f
B a l l i .
S l a v e s .
ihape, and fpeak the Malaye langttage. All are Mahometans, as
are the people o f Celebes : the ftory is, that a certain king, from
the arguments he had heard on the topic of religion from fome
Chr'ijiians and Mahometans, took a great difLike to his own,
but being unable to determine which to chufe, he convened
a general aflembly, and after a moft fervent prayer to Heaven,
refolved to prefer the religion o f that party which ihould firft
land on his. dominions : poffibly the Mahometans were in the
fecret; their miflionaries arrived, and the whole ifland embraced
the doctrine of that fedt.
I n o w defcend towards the eaitern end o f Java, and pafs
through the ftreights of Balli, which divide Java from the
ifland o f that name. The ftreights are narrow, rapid, and
bounded by pidlurefque hills, many o f a conoid form. This is a
much-frequented paflage.
T he ifland abounds with every neceflary o f life, both in the
vegetable and animal creation. When the Dutch touched here,
in their firft voyage o f the year 1595, they found it governed by
a king, who appeared in great ftate, was attended by his guards,
and drawn in a chariot by milk-white oxen. The great men
were carried in their bamboo palanquins, and lived in the higheft
luxury. The religion was then Paganijm; and the women, as
in India, devoted themfelves to the funeral pile on the deceafe o f
their huibands. In Le Premier Livre de Navigations, &c. are
fome prints®’ o f the cuftoms o f the ifland.
T h i s ifland, and that o f Macajfar, has the infamy o f furniih-
ing as many fubjeits to the flave trade as any part of the known
* P . 49. 51.
world,
world, excepting Guinea; and they are fold with as little re-
morfe as in any portion o f the hardened univerfe.
From Balli is a long chain o f iflands (which I ihall, from T im o r i a k
Timor Laut, call the Timorian thain) running eaftwaird, and ex- BAJN‘
tends very near the coafts o f New Guinea, inclining a little towards
the north as they approach that great ifland. The names
o f the moft confiderable are Lomboc, Gumbava, Ende, or Flores;
from the laft they are broken into fmaller ifles, fuch as So lor,
Omba^ and others, fcattered over the fea, or grbuped in clufters;
Timor Laut and Arrou are the moft eaftern, and the largeft o f
the latter clafs.
V ery near to the fouth fide of Omba is the great ifland o f T im o r I s l a n d .
Timor, which points to the fouth-weft; and with the adjacent
ifle o f Anamboa, forms a large triangular bafon, o f which the
iile o f Sandel Bofcbe, or fandal wood, is the weftern fide. Timor I
was difcovered in 152a by the companions o f Magellan, who
found it full of white fandal wood. They report, that on this
archipelago the difeafe o f St. Job (which they interpret the infamous
difeafe) reigneth more than in any other part o f the
world. I fufpect it to be the horrid difeafe called by Bontius*
the Amboynfe Pocken.
T h e Portuguefe attempted to make themfelves mailers of this
ifland, but were obliged to abandon their defign, by a refiftance
o f twenty years from the brave inhabitants. They had fettled
on the bay o f Cupang; from which they were expelled by the
Dutch in 1613, who built a fort named Concordia. They keep
this ifland merely for the fake o f making it an out-port to the
* P . 33. Nat. Hift.
fpicy