No region of the earth, says Marsden, can boast an equal abundance and variety of indigenous fruits as Java; but the Mangusteen bears the pre-eminence among Indian fruits, and, in the opinion of most foreigners, is superior to the cherrapayer of Lima, or any other known fruit; it suits the greatest diversity of tastes: is mildly acid, of a most delicate flavour, by no means luscious or cloying to the appetite; the shape is globular, the rind about a fourth of an inch in thickness, and it is as large as a good-sized apple; the shell is of a deep crimson or rather purple and quite brittle; disrobing it of its purple coat, there is displayed to view a snow-white pulp, distributed in three or four cloves; they are soft, very juicy, and occasionally touched with imperial purple, a colour once thought worthy of royalty only, and had it been known in ancient days, it would have been called the royal fruit; within this truly delicate pulp lies the seed. But in the opinion of the natives and _many_ foreigners who have long resided in the East, the _durian_ has the highest rank: the odour is peculiarly offensive to _most_ foreigners, savouring of roasted onions: it has the appearance of bread-fruit, but the spires of the husk are larger: it is of a spherical shape, generally, and the size of a man’s head, some being larger; when ripe they are yellow, and crack like a ripe melon, at the stalk end: they are generally split into quarters, each one having several small cells, that enclose the fruit, which is covered with a pellicle or skin, and encloses a stone covered also with a skin; these are roasted and eaten, and partake of the flavour of chestnuts; the fruit is the size of a small egg, white as milk but sometimes tinged with yellow, and as soft as cream; it can only be eaten when at maturity; it grows on the body or greater branches of the tree, is the product only of the Indian islands, and does not grow in Siam or Cochin-China; it is always more expensive than any other fruit. I do not deem it necessary to name any other fruits, excepting the wild raspberry, which grows in the mountains, and the fruits named in the account of Buitenzorg. Of esculent vegetables which contribute to the food and sustenance of man, rice is the most important, of which it is said there are upward of a hundred varieties. Maize or Indian corn ranks next. They cultivate also wheat, the sweet and the American or European potato, the yam or ubi, and pulse in a great variety; the bread-fruit also, and most of the vegetables of colder climates, the seed being imported continually from the cape of Good Hope. Neither milk, nor any preparation from it, is prized by the natives; salted eggs are an important article of food: they are covered with equal parts of salt and ashes, or salt and brick-dust, made into a thick paste: it preserves them for many months.