the cocoa-nut tree, but this is used chiefly to put into the arrack, for in that which is good it is an essential ingre...dient.

SECTION XXXIX.

Some Account of the Inhabitants of Batavia, and the adjacent Country, their Manners, Customs, and Manner of Life.

THE town of Batavia, although, as I have already observed, it is the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, is so far from being peopled with Dutchmen, that not one-fifth part, even of the European inhabitants of the town, and its environs, are natives of Holland, or of Dutch extraction: The greater part are Portuguese, and besides Europeans, there are Indians of various nations, and Chinese, besides a great number of negro slaves. In the troops, there are natives of al

most

1 Mr Barrow estimates the population of Batavia, and the adjacent villages, at 116,000, of which only about 8000 are Europeans; the slaves are supposed 17 000, the Chinese 22,000, and the remainder consists of free Javanese or Malays. The streets of Batavia, he says, present a greater variety of races than are almost any where else to be found together. Among these, however, as is to be expected, the Dutchman is by much the most consequential, when he condescends, which is not frequent, to appear amongst the lower species. Mr B's description of this important being may amuse the reader. "The Dutchman, whose predominant vice in Europe is avarice, rising into affluence in an unhealthy foreign settlement, almost invariably changes this part of his character, and, with a thorough contempt of the frugal maxim of Molier's L'Avare, lives to eat, rather than eats to live. His motto is, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' He observes, it is true, the old maxim of rising at an early hour in the morning, not however for the sake of enjoying the cool breeze, and of taking moderate exercise, but rather to begin the day's career of eating and drinking. His first essay is usually a sopie, or glass of gin, to which succeed a cup of coffee and a pipe. His stomach thus fortified, he lounges about the great hall of the house, or the viranda, if in the country, with a loose night-gown, carelessly thrown over his shoulders, a night-cap and slippers, till about eight o'clock, which is the usual hour of breakfast. This is generally a solid meal of dried meat, fish, and poultry, made into curries, eggs, rice, strong beer, and spirits. Currie and rice is a standing dish at all meals, and at all seasons of the year, being considered as an excellent stimulus to the stomach. The business of the day occupies little more than a couple of hours, from ten to twelve, when he again sits down to dinner, a meal that is somewhat more solid than the preakfast. From table he retires to sleep, and remains invisible till about

most every country in Europe, but the Germans are more than all the rest put together; there are some English and French, but the Dutch, though other Europeans are per mitted to get money here, keep all the power in their own hands, and consequently possess all public employments. No man, of whatever nation, can come hither to settle, in any other character than that of a soldier in the Company's service, in which, before they are accepted, they must covenant to remain five years. As soon, however, as this form has been complied with, they are allowed, upon application to the council, to absent themselves from their corps, and enter immediately into any branch of trade which their money or credit will enable them to carry on; and by this means it is that all the white inhabitants of the place ́are soldiers.

Women, however, of all nations, are permitted to settle here, without coming under any restrictions; yet we were told that there were not, when we arrived at Batavia, twenty women in the place that were born in Europe, but that the white women, who were by no means scarce, were descend ants from European parents of the third or fourth genera tion, the gleanings of many families who had successively come hither, and in the male line become extinct; for it is certain that, whatever be the cause, this climate is not so fatal to the ladies as to the other sex.

These women imitate the Indians in every particular; their dress is made of the same materials, their hair is worn in the same manner, and they are equally enslaved by the habit of chewing betel.

The merchants carry on their business here with less trouble perhaps than in any other part of the world: Every manufacture is managed by the Chinese, who sell the produce of their labour to the merchant resident here, for they are permitted to sell it to no one else; so that when a ship comes in, and bespeaks perhaps a hundred leagers of ar rack, or any quantity of other commodities, the merchant has nothing to do but to send orders to his Chinese to see them delivered on board: He obeys the command, brings a receipt

five in the evening, when he rises and prepares for a ride or a walk, from which he uniformly returns to a smoking-hot supper." So much for the portly Dutchman at Batavia,-a sort of animal not unsuccessfully emu lated, as to substantials, by a certain genus in some islands of the W Indies!-E.

a receipt, signed by the master of the ship, for the goods to his employer, who receives the money, and having deducted his profit, pays the Chinese his demand. With goods that are imported, however, the merchant has a little more trouble, for these he must examine, receive, and lay up in his warehouse, according to the practice of other

countries.

The Portuguese are called by the natives Oranserrne, or Nazareen men (Oran, being Man in the language of the country,) to distinguish them from other Europeans; yet they are included in the general appellation of Caper, or Cafir, an opprobrious term, applied by Mahometans to all who do not profess their faith. These people, however, are Portuguese only in name; they have renounced the religion of Rome, and become Lutherans: Neither have they the least communication with the country of their forefathers, or even knowledge of it: They speak indeed a corrupt dialect of the Portuguese language, but much more frequently use the Malay: They are never suffered to employ themselves in any but mean occupations: Many of them live by hunting, many by washing linen, and some are handicraftsmen and artificers. They have adopted all the customs of the Indians, from whom they are distinguished chiefly by their features and complexion, their skin being considerably darker, and their noses more sharp; their dress is exactly the same, except in the manner of wearing their hair.

The Indians, who are mixed with the Dutch and Portuguese in the town of Batavia, and the country adjacent, are not, as might be supposed, Javanese, the original natives of the island, but natives of the various islands from which the Dutch import slaves, and are either such as have themselves been manumized, or the descendants of those who formerly received manumission; and they are all comprehended under the general name of Oranslam, or Isalam, signifying be lievers of the true faith. The natives of every country, however, in other respects, keep themselves distinct from the rest, and are not less strongly marked than the slaves by the vices or virtues of their respective nations. Many of se employ themselves in the cultivation of gardens, and lling fruit and flowers. The betel and areca, which called siri and pinang, and chewed by both sexes

and

and every rank in amazing quantities, are all grown by these Indians: Lime is also mixed with these roots here as it is in Savu, but it is less pernicious to the teeth, because it is first slaked, and, besides the lime, a substance called gambir, which is brought from the continent of India; the better sort of women also add cardamum, and many other aromatics, to give the breath an agreeable smell. Some of the Indians, however, are employed in fishing, and as lightermen, to carry goods from place to place by water; and some are rich, and live with much of the splendour of their country, which chiefly consists in the number of their slaves.

In the article of food, these Isalams are remarkably temperate: It consists chiefly of boiled rice, with a small portion of buffalo, fish, or fowl, and sometimes of dried fish, and dried shrimps, which are brought hither from China; every dish, however, is highly seasoned with Cayan pepper, and they have many kinds of pastry made of rice-flour, and other things to which I am a stranger; they eat also a great deal of fruit, particularly plantains.

But notwithstanding their general temperance their feasts are plentiful, and, according to their manner, magnificent. As they are Mahometans, wine and strong liquors professedly make no part of their entertainment, neither do they often indulge with them privately, contenting themselves with their betel and opium.

The principal solemnity among them is a wedding, upon which occasion both the families borrow as many ornaments of gold and silver as they can, to adorn the bride and bridegroom, so that their dresses are very showy and magnificent. The feasts, that are given upon these occasions among the rich, last sometimes a fortnight, and sometimes longer; and during this time the man, although married on the first day, is, by the women, kept from his wife.

The language that is spoken among all these people, from what place soever they originally came, is the Malay; at least, it is a language so called, and probably it is a very corrupt dialect of that spoke island, indeed, has a languag or three, but this lingua fran now spoken here, and, as I a part of the East Indies. A

lish was published in London by Thomas Bowrey, in the year 1701.

Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon the head, and to increase the quantity, they use oils, and other preparations of various kinds. Of this ornament Nature has been very liberal; it is universally black, and is formed into a kind of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpressibly elegant: The wreath of hair is surrounded by another of flowers, in which the Arabian jessamine is beautifully intermixed with the golden stars of the bonger tanjong.

Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the river at least once a-day, a practice which, in this hot country, is equally necessary both to personal delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also, whatever they may suffer in their colour by chewing betel, are an object of great attention: The ends of them, both in the upper and under jaw, are rubbed with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and painful operation, till they are perfectly even and flat, so that they cannot lose less than half a line in their length. A deep groove is then made across the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, and in the middle between them and the extremity of the teeth; the depth of this groove is at least equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, so that it penetrates far beyond what is called the enamel, the least injury to which, according to the dentists of Europe, is fatal; yet among these people, where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is universal, we never saw a rotten tooth; nor is the blackness a stain, but a covering, which may be washed off at pleasure, and the teeth then appear as white as ivory, which, however, is not an excellence in the estimation of the belles and beaux of these nations.

These are the people among whom the practice that is called a mock, or running a muck, has prevailed for time immemorial. It is well known, that to run a muck, in the original

What is here said of the Malay language cannot be implicitly relied on, information on the subject being exceedingly scanty at the time of the publication. Mr Marsden has lately favoured the world with both dictionary grammar of the Malay, of which a very important account will be in the Edinburgh Review for April 1814.-E.