Hamilton's account of the east indies.
478
ing famine in their fleet, fleered their courfe for Siam with difgrace. In anno 1720 ,1faw feveral of the wrecks, and the ruins of the town of Ponteamafs.
The city of Cambodia ftands on the fide of the great rivers about t;o or 60 leaguesfrom Ponteamafs by land, or by water in the fouth-weft monfoons. The country pro-duces gold of 21 carats fine, raw filk at 120 dollars per pecul, elephants teeth at 50to 55 dollars for the largeft. The finall are of different prices. They have alfo muchfapan-wood, fandal-wood, agala-wood, flick-lack, and many forts of phyfical drugs,and lack for japanning. They are very defirous of having a trade with the Englifh ;but they will not fuffer the Dutch to fettle factories in their country.
Provifions of flefh and fifh are plentiful and cheap, and are the only things that maybe bought without a permit from the King. I have bought a bullock, that weighedbetween four and five hundred weight, for a Spanifh dollar ; and rice is boughtat eight-pence per pecul, which is about 1 40IIXS. ; but poultry are fcarce, becaufe thecountry being for the molt part woody, when the chickens grow' big they go to thewoods, and fhift for themfelves. Tigers and wild elephants are numerous in thewoods, and there are alfo wild cattle and buffaloes, and plenty of deer, all which animalsevery body is free to catch or kill.
There are about 200 Topaffes, or Indian Portuguese fettled and married in Cam-bodia , and fome of them have pretty good ports in the government, and live greatafter the fafhion of that country; but they have no priefts, nor will any venture to goamong them ; for in anno 1710, a poor capuchin went there to officiate, and findingone of the toppingeft of his congregation to have two wives, ordered him, by virtue ofhis facerdotal power, to put one of them away, but his parifhioner would not obey inthat point, which made the prieft ufe the weapon of excommunication againft him,which the other took in fuch dudgeon, that he knocked his fpiritual guide’s brains outfor his unfeafonable feverity. Since that time they wrote to Siam and Macao in China for fome more ghoftly fathers, but not one will go, though perhaps they might havethe honour of dying martyrs.
They all of them have fmall penfions from the King, but too narrow to maintainthem, fo they go to the woods with fire-arms, and kill wild elephants for their teeth,which they fell to foreigners, and their way of killing them is very Angular ; for theyform a piece of iron like a flug, and the foremoft end is made fharp : in the woodsgrow certain trees with a thick bark of a violent poifonous quality ; they drive thefharp end of the flug into the bark, and let it flay a ftiort time in it, then put the fluginto their gun charged with powder, and coming near the beaft, fire the flug into itsbody; the elephant being thus wounded, flees from the man, but the man keepsfight of it for a fmall fpace of time, and then it drops down dead.
.And with the fame poifoned flugs they kill cattle and buffaloes, for their tongues.This fubtil poifon has alfo another ftrange quality, that if men become hungry or thirfty(as they often do in the woods), they fqueeze a few drops of it on a leaf of a tree, andthey licking the leaf, it gives immediate refrefhment; but if the Ikin be broken, andthe juice touch the part, it proves mortal without remedy.
When I arrived at Ponteamafs, an officer came on board who could fpeak a littlePortugueze. He brought a prefent of refrelhments along with him, and advifed me tofend to the King, to give him an account of my arrival, and acquaint him that I defignedto trade with his fubje&s by his permiffion, which I did, and in twelve days received ananfwer that I might, but defired me to fend fome perfon up with mufters of my goods,that he and his merchants might fee them, and fent two Portugueze for interpreters,one to flay with me on board of my fhip, while I ftaid, and the other to accompany the