[125] There is also at Batavia a bird which emits a melancholy scream and whistle during the night; it is called by the Javanese “_Borong Matee_,” or “Death bird,” and is regarded by them, as well as by some of the European residents, as a bird of ill-omen; and its note is supposed to indicate the approaching death of some individual. I was informed, that the decease of a gentleman at Batavia was indicated some time before by one of these birds uttering its melancholy screams, and hovering near the dwelling, and this was mentioned by a European, who credited the superstitious idea that these birds were ominous. [126] Governor King, when at Norfolk Island, cut down one which measured, after it was felled, two hundred and twenty-eight feet long, and eleven feet in diameter. [127] Thompson’s _London Dispensatory_. 8vo. p. 532. [128] The Trial Rocks are thus mentioned in the “Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and Dampier,” published in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, page 448. “Dampier intended once more to attempt New Holland in about 20°. Here he found soundings at forty fathoms, but did not see the land; and steered westward, to search for the Trial Rocks, (so named from an English ship called the Trial having been wrecked upon them many years before,) which were supposed to lie in this parallel, and about eighty leagues westward of the coast. But Captain Dampier was sick, and unable to maintain perpetual watch himself, and the officers inefficient and careless, so that this important point was not ascertained.” [129] These are certainly the most delicate and beautiful of the oceanic birds; their peculiar shrill, raucous note indicates their presence about the ship; hovering over the vessel, or darting into the water in pursuit of prey, and as the sun shines upon the chaste and elegant plumage of the white species, or the rosy-tinted feathers of the red species, or _phœnicurus_, their beauty is increased. [130] Some ships, seeking freights, anchor outside the roads, by which it seems the port charges are saved; and then anchor in the roadstead, if they consider there is a sufficient inducement for them to remain at this port. [131] The “far-famed Mangoosteen” is certainly an agreeable fruit, but still I cannot join the various writers who have lavished such praises upon it—it may be want of _taste_ in me; and probably the fruit will still retain “its luscious qualities, surpassing all other fruits in the world, combining the excellence of the whole;” but I must candidly confess that I am not so great an admirer of this or other tropical fruits, although I at the same time allow many to have excellent flavour, yet none can bear comparison with the delightful acidulated European fruits; and the Mangoosteen is even, in my opinion, beneath the orange or pine-apple, although still a very agreeable fruit.