morning he was something better, and from that time recovered, though by extremely slow degrees, till his second attack. I myself, either by the influence of the bark of which I had all along taken quantities, or by the anxiety I suffered on Dr. Solander's account, missed my fever, nor did it return for several days, until he became better.

14th. We had the agreeable news of the repairs of the ship being completely finished, and that she had returned to Cooper's Island, where she proved to be no longer leaky. When examined she had proved much worse than anybody expected; her main plank being in many places so cut by the rocks that not more than one-eighth of an inch in thickness remained; and here the worm had got in and made terrible havoc. Her false keel was entirely gone, and her main keel much wounded. The damages were now, however, entirely repaired, and very well too in the opinion of everybody who saw the Dutch artificers do their work.

Dr. Solander grew better, though by very slow degrees. I soon had a return of my ague, which now became quotidian ; the captain also was taken ill on board, and of course we sent his servant to him. Soon after both Mr. Sporing and our seaman were seized with intermittents, so that we were again reduced to the melancholy necessity of depending entirely upon the Malays for nursing us, all of whom were often sick together.

24th. We had for some nights now had the wind on the western board, generally attended with some rain, thunder and lightning; this night it blew strong at S.W. and rained harder than ever I saw it before for three or four hours. Our house rained in every part, and through the lower part of it ran a stream almost capable of turning a mill. In the morning I went to Batavia, where the quantities of bedding that I everywhere saw hung up to dry, made a very uncommon sight, for I was told almost every house in the town and neighbourhood suffered more or less. This was certainly the shifting of the monsoon; for the winds, which had before been constantly to the eastward, remained constantly on the western board. The people here, however,

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told us that it did not commonly shift so suddenly, and were loth to believe that the westerly winds were really set in for several days after.

Dr. Solander had recovered enough to be able to walk about the house, but gathered strength very slowly. Ι myself was given to understand that curing my ague was of very little consequence while the cause remained in the badness of the air. The physician, however, bled me, and gave me frequent gentle purges, which he told me would make the attacks less violent, as was really the case. They came generally about two or three in the afternoon, a time when everybody in these climates is always asleep, and by four or five I had generally recovered sufficiently to get up and walk in the garden. The rainy season had now set in, and we had generally some rain in the night; the days were more or less cloudy, and sometimes wet; this, however, was not always the case, for we once had a whole week of very clear weather.

The frogs in the ditches, whose voices were ten times louder than those of European ones, made a noise almost intolerable on nights when rain was to be expected; and the mosquitos or gnats, who had been sufficiently troublesome even in the dry time, were now breeding in every splash of water, and became innumerable, especially in the moonlight nights. Their stings, however, though painful and troublesome enough at the time, never continued to itch above half an hour; so that no man in the daytime was troubled with the bites of the night before. Indeed, I never met with any whose bites caused swellings remaining twenty-four hours, except the midges or gnats of Lincolnshire (which are identically the same insect as is called mosquito in most parts of the world) and the sand flies of North America.1

1st December. About this time Dr. Solander had a return of his fever, which increased gradually for four or five days, when he became once more in imminent danger.

7th. We received the agreeable news of the ship's arrival in the road, having completed all her rigging, etc., and having 1 Alluding to his experience in Newfoundland in 1766.

now nothing to take in but provisions and a little water. The people on board, however, were extremely sickly, and several had died, a circumstance necessarily productive of delays; indeed, had they been strong and healthy we should have been before now at sea.

Dr. Solander had changed much for the better within these two last days, so that our fears of losing him were entirely dissipated, for which much praise is due to his ingenious physician, Dr. Jaggi, who at this juncture especially was indefatigable.

16th. Our departure being now very soon to take place, I thought it would be very convenient to cure the ague, which had now been my constant companion for many weeks. Accordingly I took decoction of bark plentifully, and in three or four days missed it. I then went to town, settled all my affairs, and remained impatient to have the day fixed.

24th. The 25th, Christmas Day by our account, being fixed for sailing, we this morning hired a large country proa, which came up to the door and took in Dr. Solander, now tolerably recovered, and carried him on board the ship, where in the evening we all joined him.

CHAPTER XVII

DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA

Situation-Number of houses-Streets-Canals-Houses-Public buildingsFortifications Castle-Forts within the city - Soldiers HarbourIslands and uses to which they are put-Dutch fleet-Country round Batavia-Thunderstorms-Marshes-Unhealthiness of the climateFruitfulness of the soil-Cattle, sheep, etc.-Wild animals-Fish-Birds - Rice - Mountain rice-Vegetables-Fruits: detailed description, supply and consumption-Palm-wine-Odoriferous flowers-Spices— Population and nationalities-Trade-Cheating-Portuguese-SlavesPunishment of slaves-Javans-Habits and customs-Native attention to the hair and teeth-Running amoc-Native superstitions-Crocodiles as twin brothers to men-Chinese: their habits, mode of living and burial-Government-Officials-Justice-Taxation-Money.

BATAVIA, the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, and generally esteemed to be by much the finest town in the possession of Europeans in these parts, is situated in a low fenny plain, where several small rivers, which take their rise in mountains called Blaen Berg, about forty miles inland, empty themselves into the sea. The Dutch (always true to their commercial interests) seemed to have pitched upon this situation entirely for the convenience of water-carriage, which indeed few, if any, towns in Europe enjoy in a higher degree. Few streets in the town are without canals of considerable breadth, running through or rather stagnating in them. These canals are continued for several miles round the town, and with five or six rivers, some of which are navigable thirty or forty or more miles inland, make the carriage of every species of produce inconceivably cheap.

It is very difficult to judge of the size of the town: the size of the houses, in general large, and the breadth of the

streets increased by their canals, make it impossible to compare it with any English town. All I can say is that when seen from the top of a building, from whence the eye takes it in at one view, it does not look nearly so large as it seems to be when you walk about it. Valentijn, who wrote about that in his time there were

and before the year 1726, says within the walls 1242 Dutch houses, and 1200 Chinese; without, 1066 Dutch and 1240 Chinese, besides twelve arrack houses. This number, however, appeared to me to be very highly exaggerated, those within the walls especially. But of all this I confess myself a very indifferent judge, having enjoyed so little health, especially towards the latter part of my stay, that I had no proper opportunity of satisfying myself in such particulars.

In

The streets are broad and handsome, and the banks of the canals in general planted with rows of trees. A stranger on his first arrival is very much struck with these, and often led to observe how much the heat of the climate must be tempered by the shade of the trees and coolness of the water. Indeed, as to the first, it must be convenient to those who walk on foot; but a very short residence will show him that the inconveniences of the canals far over-balance any convenience he can derive from them in any but a mercantile light. Instead of cooling the air, they contribute not a little to heat it, especially those which are stagnant, as most of them are, by reflecting back the fierce rays of the sun. the dry season these stink most abominably, and in the wet many of them overflow their banks, filling the lower storeys of the houses near them with water. When they clean them, which is very often, as some are not more than three or four feet deep, the black mud taken out is suffered to lie upon the banks, that is, in the middle of the street, till it has acquired a sufficient hardness to be conveniently laden into boats. This mud stinks intolerably. Add to this that the running water, which is in some measure free from the former inconveniences, has every now and then a dead horse or hog stranded in the shallow parts, a nuisance which I was informed no particular person was appointed to remove.

I