use of slaves. As they had already experienced their want of influence over slaves that had other masters, and the unfeeling inattention of these fellows to the sick, they bought each of them a Malay woman, which removed both the causes of their being,so ill served; the women were their own property, and the tenderness of the sex, even here, made them good nurses. While these preparations were making, they received an account of the death of Tupia, who sunk at once after the loss of the boy, whom he loved with the tenderness of a parent.

By the 14th, the bottom of the ship was thoroughly repaired, and very much to my satisfaction; it would, indeed, be injustice to the officers and workmen of this yard, not to declare that, in my opinion, there is not a marine yard in the world where a ship can be laid down with more convenience, safety, and despatch, nor repaired with more diligence and skill. At this place they heave down by two masts, a method which we do not now practise it is, however, unquestionably more safe and expeditious to heave down with two masts than one; and he must have a good share of bigotry to old customs, and an equal want of common sense, who will not allow this, after seeing with what facility the Dutch heave down their largest ships at this place.

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander recovered slowly at their country-house, which was not only open to the sea-breeze, but situated upon a running stream, which greatly contributed to the circulation of the air: but I was now taken ill myself; Mr. Sporing and a seaman who had attended Mr. Banks were also seized with intermittents; and, indeed, there was not more than ten of the whole ship's company that were able to do duty. We proceeded, however, in rigging the ship, and getting water and stores aboard: the water we were obliged to procure from Batavia, at the rate of six shillings and eightpence a leager, or one hundred and fifty gallons.

About the 26th, the westerly monsoon set in, which generally blows here in the night from the S. W., and in the day from the N. W. or N. For some nights before this, we had very heavy rain, with much thunder; and in the night between the 25th and 26th, such rain as we had seldom seen, for near four hours without intermission. Mr. Banks's house admitted the water in every part like a sieve, and it ran through the lower rooms in a stream that would have turned a mill; he was by this time sufficiently recovered to go out, and, upon his entering Batavia the next morning, he was much surprised to see the bedding everywhere hung out to dry. The wet season was now set in, though we had some intervals of fair weather. The frogs in the ditches, which croak ten times louder than any frogs in Europe, gave notice of rain by an incessant noise that was almost intolerable, and the gnats and mosquitos, which had been very troublesome even during the dry weather, were now become innumerable, swarming from every plash of water like bees from a hive : they did not, however, much incommode us in the day, and the stings, however troublesome at first, never continued to itch above half an hour, so that none of us felt in the day the effects of the wounds they had received in the night.

On the 8th of December, the ship being perfectly refitted, and having taken in most of her water and stores, and received the sick on board, we ran up to Batavia Road, and anchored in four fathom and a half of water. From this time, to the 24th, we were employed in getting on board the remainder of our water and provisions, with some new pumps, and in several other operations that were necessary to fit the ship for the sea, all which would have been effected much sooner, if sickness and death had not disabled or carried off a great number of our men.

While we lay here, the Earl of Elgin, Captain Cook, a ship belonging to the English East India Company, came to an anchor in the road. She was bound from Madras to China, but having lost her passage, put in here to wait for the next season. The Phoenix, Captain Black, an English country ship, from Bencoolen, also came to an anchor at this place.

In the afternoon of Christmas eve, the 24th, I took leave of the governor, and several of the principal gentlemen of the place, with whom I had formed connexions, and from whom I received every possible civility and assistance; but in the mean time an accident happened, ich might have produced disagreeable consequences. A seaman had run away from one

of the Dutch ships in the road, and entered on board of mine: the captain had applied to the governor, to reclaim him as a subject of Holland, and an order for that purpose was procured this order was brought to me soon after I returned from my last visit, and I said, that if the man appeared to be a Dutchman, he should certainly be delivered up. Mr. Hicks commanded on board, and I gave the Dutch officer an order to him, to deliver the man up under that condition. I slept myself this night on shore, and, in the morning, the captain of the Dutch commodore came and told me that he had carried my order on board, but that the officer had refused to deliver up the man, alleging, not only that he was not a Dutchman, but that he was a subject of Great Britain, born in Ireland: I replied, that the officer had perfectly executed my orders, and that if the man was an English subject, it could not be expected that I should deliver him up. The captain then said, that he was just come from the governor, to demand the man of me in his name, as a subject of Denmark, alleging that he stood in the ship's books as born at Elsineur. The claim of this man as a subject of Holland being now given up, I observed to the captain that there appeared to be some mistake in the general's message, for that he would certainly never demand a Danish seaman from me, who had committed no other crime than preferring the service of the English to that of the Dutch. I added, however, to convince him of my sincere desire to avoid disputes, that if the man was a Dane he should be delivered up as a courtesy, though he could not be demanded as a right; but that if I found he was an English subject, I would keep him at all events. Upon these terms we parted, and soon after I received a letter from Mr. Hicks, containing indubitable proof that the seaman in question was a subject of his Britannic Majesty. This letter I immediately carried to the Shebander, with a request that it might be shown to the governor, and that his excellency might at the same time be told I would not upon any terms part with the man. This had the desired effect, and I heard no more of the affair. In the evening, I went on board, accompanied by Mr. Banks, and the rest of the gentlemen who had constantly resided on shore, and who, though better, were not yet perfectly recovered.

At six in the morning of the 26th, we weighed and set sail, with a light breeze at S.W. The Elgin Indiaman saluted us with three cheers and thirteen guns, and the garrison with fourteen, both which, with the help of our swivels, we returned, and soon after the seabreeze set in at N. by W., which obliged us to anchor just without the ships in the road. At this time the number of sick on board amounted to forty, and the rest of the ship's company were in a very feeble condition. Every individual had been sick except the sailmaker, an old man between seventy and eighty years of age, and it is very remarkable that this old man, during our stay at this place, was constantly drunk every day: we had buried seven, the surgeon, three seamen, Mr. Green's servant, Tupia, and Tayeto his boy. All but Tupia fell a sacrifice to the unwholesome, stagnant, putrid air of the country; and he who, from his birth, had been used to subsist chiefly upon vegetable food, particularly ripe fruit, soon contracted all the disorders that are incident to a sea life, and would probably have sunk under them before we could have completed our voyage, if we had not been obliged to go to Batavia to refit.

CHAPTER XI.-SOME ACCOUNT OF BATAVIA, AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRY-WITH THEIR FRUITS, FLOWERS, AND OTHER PRODUCTIONS.

BATAVIA, the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, and generally supposed to have no equal among all the possessions of the Europeans in Asia, is situated on the north side of the island of Java, in a low fenny plain, where several small rivers, which take their rise in the mountains called Blaeuwen Berg, about forty miles up the country, empty themselves into the sea, and where the coast forms a large bay, called the Bay of Batavia, at the distance of about eight leagues from the Strait of Sunda. It lies in latitude 6° 10' S., and longitude 106° 50′ E. from the meridian of Greenwich, as appears from astronomical observations made upon the spot, by the Reverend Mr. Mohr, who has built an elegant observatory; which is as well furnished with instruments as most in Europe.

The Dutch seem to have pitched upon this spot for the convenience of water-carriage; and in that it is, indeed, a second Holland, and superior to every other place in the world. There are very few streets that have not a canal of considerable breadth running through them, or rather stagnating in them, and continued for several miles in almost every direction beyond the town, which is also intersected by five or six rivers, some of which are navigable thirty or forty miles up the country. As the houses are large, and the streets wide, it takes up a much greater extent, in proportion to the number of houses it contains, than any city in Europe. Valentyn, who wrote an account of it about the year 1726, says, that in his time there were, within the walls, 1242 Dutch houses and 1200 Chinese; and without the walls 1066 Dutch, and 1240 Chinese, besides 12 arrack-houses, making in all 4760: but this account appeared to us to be greatly exaggerated, especially with respect to the number of houses within the walls.

The streets are spacious and handsome, and the banks of the canals are planted with rows of trees, that make a very pleasing appearance; but the trees concur with the canals to make the situation unwholesome. The stagnant canals in the dry season exhale an intolerable stench, and the trees impede the course of the air, by which, in some degree, the putrid effluvia would be dissipated. In the wet season the inconvenience is equal, for then these reservoirs of corrupted water overflow their banks in the lower part of the town, especially in the neighbourhood of the hotel, and fill the lower stories of the houses, where they leave behind them an inconceivable quantity of slime and filth: yet these canals are sometimes cleaned; but the cleaning them is so managed as to become as great a nuisance as the foulness of the water for the black mud that is taken from the bottom is suffered to lie upon the banks, that is, in the middle of the street, till it has acquired a sufficient degree of hardness to be made the lading of a boat and carried away. As this mud consists chiefly of human ordure, which is regularly thrown into the canals every morning, there not being a necessaryhouse in the whole town, it poisons the air while it is drying to a considerable extent. Even the running streams become nuisances in their turn, by the nastiness or negligence of the people for every now and then a dead hog, or a dead horse, is stranded upon the shallow parts, and it being the business of no particular person to remove the nuisance, it is negligently left to time and accident. While we were here, a dead buffalo lay upon the shoal of a river that ran through one of the principal streets above a week, and at last was carried away by a flood.

The houses are, in general, well adapted to the climate: they consist of one very large. room or hall on the ground-floor, with a door at each end, both which generally stand open; at one end a room is taken off by a partition, where the master of the house transacts his business; and in the middle, between each end, there is a court, which gives light to the hall, and at the same time increases the draught of air. From one corner of the hall the stairs go up to the floor above, where also the rooms are spacious and airy. In the alcove, which is formed by the court, the family dine; and at other times it is occupied by the female slaves, who are not allowed to sit down anywhere else.

The public buildings are, most of them, old, heavy, and ungraceful; but the new church is not inelegant; it is built with a dome, that is seen from a great distance at sea, and though the outside has rather a heavy appearance, the inside forms a very fine room: it is furnished with an organ of a proper size, being very large, and is most magnificently illuminated by chandeliers.

The town is inclosed by a stone wall, of a moderate height: but the whole of it is old, and many parts are much out of repair. This wall itself is surrounded by a river, which in some places is fifty, and in some a hundred yards wide: the stream is rapid, but the water is shallow. The wall is also lined within by a canal, which in different parts is of different breadths; so that, in passing either out or in through the gates, it is necessary to cross two draw-bridges; and there is no access for idle people or strangers to walk upon the ramparts, which seem to be but ill provided with guns.

In the north-east corner of the town stands the castle or citadel, the walls of which are both higher and thicker than those of the town, especially near the landing-place, where there is depth of water only for boats, which it completely commands, with several large guns that make a very good appearance.

Within this castle are apartments for the governor-general and all the council of India, to which they are enjoined to repair in case of a siege. Here are also large storehouses, where great quantities of the Company's goods are kept, especially those that are brought from Europe, and where almost all their writers transact their business. In this place also are laid up a great number of cannon, whether to mount upon the walls or furnish shipping, we could not learn; and the Company is said to be well supplied with powder, which is dispersed in various magazines, that, if some should be destroyed by lightning, which in this place is very frequent, the rest may escape.

Besides the fortifications of the town, numerous forts are dispersed about the country to the distance of twenty or thirty miles; these seem to have been intended merely to keep the natives in awe, and, indeed, they are fit for nothing else. For the same purpose a kind of houses, each of which mounts about eight guns, are placed in such situations as command the navigation of three or four canals, and consequently the roads upon their banks: some of these are in the town itself, and it was from one of these that all the best houses belonging to the Chinese were levelled with the ground in the Chinese rebellion of 1740. These defences are scattered over all parts of Java, and the other islands of which the Dutch have got possession in these seas. Of one of these singular forts, or fortified houses, we should have procured a drawing, if our gentlemen had not been confined by sickness almost all the time they were upon the island.

If the Dutch fortifications here are not formidable in themselves, they become so by their situation for they are among morasses where the roads, which are nothing more than a bank thrown up between a canal and a ditch, may easily be destroyed, and consequently the approach of heavy artillery either totally prevented or greatly retarded: for it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to transport them in boats, as they all muster every night under the guns of the castle, a situation from which it would be impossible for an enemy to take them. Besides, in this country, delay is death; so that whatever retards an enemy, will destroy him. In less than a week, we were sensible of the unhealthiness of the climate; and in less than a month half the ship's company were unable to do their duty. We were told, that of a hundred soldiers who arrive here from Europe, it was a rare thing for fifty to survive the first year; that of those fifty, half would then be in the hospital, and not ten of the rest in perfect health: possibly this account may be exaggerated; but the

pale and feeble wretches whom we saw crawling about with a musket, which they were scarcely able to carry, inclined us to believe that it was true. Every white inhabitant of the town, indeed, is a soldier; the younger are constantly mustered, and those who have served five years are liable to be called out when their assistance is thought to be necessary; but as neither of them are ever exercised, or do any kind of duty, much cannot be expected from them. The Portuguese, indeed, are in general good marksmen, because they employ themselves much in shooting wild hogs and deer: neither the Mardykers nor the Chinese know the use of fire-arms; but as they are said to be brave, they might do much execution with their own weapons, swords, lances, and daggers. The Mardykers are Indians of all nations, who are descended from free ancestors, or have themselves been made free.

But if it is difficult to attack Batavia by land, it is utterly impossible to attack it by sea: for the water is so shallow, that it will scarcely admit a long-boat to come within cannon shot of the walls, except in a narrow channel, called the river, that is walled on both sides by strong piers, and runs about half-a-mile into the harbour. At the other end, it terminates under the fire of the strongest part of the castle; and here its communication with the canals that intersect the town is cut off by a large wooden boom, which is shut every night at six o'clock, and upon no pretence opened till the next morning. The harbour of Batavia is accounted the finest in India, and to all appearance with good reason; it is large enough to contain any number of ships, and the ground is so good that one anchor will hold till the cable decays: it never admits any sea that is troublesome, and its only inconvenience is the shoal water between the road and the river. When the sea breeze blows fresh, it makes a cockling sea that is dangerous to boats: our long-boat once struck two or three times as she was attempting to come out, and regained the river's mouth with some difficulty. A Dutch boat, laden with sails and rigging for one of the Indiamen, was entirely lost.

Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many islands, which the Dutch have taken possession of, and apply to different uses. To one of them, called Edam, they transport all Europeans who have been guilty of crimes that are not worthy of death: some are sentenced to remain there ninety-nine years, some forty, some twenty, some less, down to five, in proportion to their offence; and, during their banishment, they are employed as slaves in making ropes, and other drudgery. In another island, called Purmerent, they have an hospital, where people are said to recover much faster than at Batavia. In a third, called Kuyper, they have warehouses belonging to the Company, chiefly for rice, and other merchandise of small value; and here the foreign ships, that are to be laid down at Onrust, another of these islands, which with Kuyper has been mentioned before, discharge their cargoes at wharfs which are very convenient for the purpose. Here the guns, sails, and other stores of the Falmouth, a man-of-war which was condemned at this place when she was returning from Manilla, were deposited, and the ship herself remained in the harbour, with only the warrant-officers on board, for many years. Remittances were regularly made them from home; but no notice was ever taken of the many memorials they sent, desiring to be recalled. Happily for them, the Dutch thought fit, about six months before our arrival, to sell the vessel and all her stores, by public auction, and send the officers home in their own ships. At Onrust, they repair all their own shipping, and keep a large quantity of naval stores.

The country round Batavia is for some miles a continued range of country-houses and gardens. Many of the gardens are very large, and, by some strange fatality, all are planted with trees almost as thick as they can stand; so that the country derives no advantage from its being cleared of the wood that originally covered it, except the fruit of that which has been planted in its room. These impenetrable forests stand in a dead flat, which extends some miles beyond them, and is intersected in many directions by rivers, and more still by canals, which are navigable for small vessels. Nor is this the worst, for the fence of every field and garden is a ditch; and, interspersed among the cultivated ground, there are many filthy fens, bogs, and morasses, as well fresh as salt.

It is not strange that the inhabitants of such a country should be familiar with disease and death preventive medicines are taken almost as regularly as food; and everybody expects the returns of sickness, as we do the seasons of the year. We did not see a single