"The Javans are proud, brave, and treacherous, and so vindictive, that for any slight offence (and they consider as the most unpardonable the touching their forehead with your hand) they declare _amok_ to revenge it. They navigate much to every part of the Eastern Archipelago, and say that formerly they used to navigate the ocean as far as the island of Madagascar (St. Laurence).
"The city of _Bintam_, or _Banta_, which is in the middle of the opening of the straits of Sunda, stands in the centre of a large bay, which from point to point may be about three leagues wide, the bottom good, and the depth of water from two to six fathoms. A river of sufficient depth for junks and galleys, falls into this bay, and divides the town into two parts. On one side of the town there is a fort, built of sun-dried bricks: the walls are about seven palms thick, the bulwarks of wood, well furnished with artillery.
"The island of Sunda is more mountainous than Java. It has six good sea-ports: _Chiamo_, at the extremity of the island; _Chacatara_, or _Caravam_; _Tangaram_, _Cheginde_, _Pandang_, and _Bintam_, which have a great traffic, on account of the trade carried on, not only with Java, but with Malacca and Sumatra.
"The principal city of this kingdom is called _Daro_, situated a little towards the interior, and we are assured that when Henriquez Lerne first visited it, this town had upwards of fifty thousand inhabitants, and that the kingdom had upwards of one hundred thousand fighting men.
"The soil is very rich. An inferior gold, of six carats, is found. There is abundance of butcher's meat, game and provisions, and tamarinds which serve the natives for vinegar. The inhabitants are not very warlike, much addicted to their idolatries, and hate the Mahomedans, and particularly since they were conquered by the _Sangue Páti Dama_.
"Here four or five thousand slaves may be purchased, on account of the numerous population, and its being lawful for the father to sell the children. The women are handsome, and those of the nobles chaste, which is not the case with those of the lower classes. There are monasteries or convents for the women, into which the nobles put their daughters, when they cannot match them in marriage according to their wishes. The married women, when their husbands die, must, as a point of honour, die with them, and if they should be afraid of death they are put into the convents.