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age, and it is very remarkable that this old man, during our stay at this place, was conftantly drunk every day: we had buried seven, the Surgeon, three feamen, Mr. Green's Wednes, 26, fervant, Tupia, and. Tayeto his boy. All but Tupia fell a facrifice to the unwholesome, ftagnant, putrid air of the country, and he who from his birth had been used to fubfift chiefly upon vegetable food, particularly ripe fruit, foon contracted all the diforders that are incident to a fea life, and would probably have funk under them before we could have completed our voyage, if we had not been obliged to go to Batavia to refit.

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1770. December.

CHAP. XIII.

Some Account of Batavia, and the adjacent Country; with their Fruits, Flowers, and other Productions.

ATAVIA, the capital of the Dutch dominions in India,

and generally supposed to have no equal among all the poffeffions of the Europeans in Afia, is fituated on the north fide of the island of Java, in a low fenny plain, where several fmall rivers, which take their rise in the mountains called Blaeuwen Berg, about forty miles up the country, empty them. felves into the fea, and where the coaft forms a large bay, called the Bay of Batavia, at the distance of about eight leagues from the ftreight of Sunda. It lies in latitude 6o 10'S. and longitude 106, o E. from the meridian of Greenwich, as appears from aftronomical observations made upon the spot,, by the Reverend Mr. Mohr, who has built an elegant ob fervatory, which is as well furnished with inftruments as moft in Europe.

The Dutch feem to have pitched upon this fpot for the convenience of water-carriage, and in that it is indeed a fecond Holland, and fuperior to every other place in the world. There are very few streets that have not a canal of confiderable breadth running through them, or rather flagnating in them, and continued for feveral miles in almost every direction beyond the town, which is also interfected by five or fix rivers, fome 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 pro

portion to the number of houses it contains, than any city in Europe. Valentyn, who wrote an account of it about the year 1726, fays, that in his time there were, within the walls, 1242 Dutch houfes, and 1200 Chinese; and without the walls 1066 Dutch, and 1240 Chinefe, befides 12 arrack houses, making in all 4760: but this account appeared to us to be greatly exaggerated, efpecially with refpect to the number of houses within the walls.

The streets are fpacious and handsome, and the banks of the canals are planted with rows of trees, that make a very pleafing appearance; but the trees concur with the canals: to make the fituation unwholesome. The stagnant canals in the dry feafon exhale an intolerable ftench, and the treesimpede the course of the air, by which in fome degree the putrid effluvia would be diffipated. In the wet season the inconvenience is equal, for then these refervoirs of corrupted water overflow their banks in the lower part of the town, especially in the neighbourhood of the hotel, and fill the lower ftories of the houfes, where they leave behind: them an inconceivable quantity of flime and filth: yet thefe canals are sometimes cleaned; but the cleaning them is fo managed as to become as great a nuifance as the foulness of the water; for the Black mud that is taken from the bottom is fuffered to lie upon the banks, that is, in the middle of the: street, till it has acquired a fufficient 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 neceffary-house in the whole town, it poifons- the air while. it is drying to a confiderable extent. Even the running ftreams become nuifances in their turn, by the nastinefs or negligence of the people; for every now and then a dead

hog,

t

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December.

hog, or a dead horfe, is ftranded upon the fhallow parts, and it being the business of no particular person to remove the nuifance, it is negligently left to time and accident. While we were here, a dead buffalo lay upon the fhoal 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 confist 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 mafter of the houfe tranfacts his bufinefs; and in the middle between each end there is a court, which gives light to the hall, and at the fame time increases the draught of air. From one corner of the hall the stairs go up to the floor above, where alfo 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 fit down any where 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 feen from a great distance at fea, and though the outside has rather a heavy appearance, the infide forms a very fine room: it is furnished with an organ of a proper fize, being very large, and is moft magnificently illuminated by chandeliers.

The town is inclosed by a ftone 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 fome places is fifty, and in some a hundred yards wide: the ftream is rapid, but the water is fhallow. The wall is alfo lined within by a canal, which in different parts is of different breadths; so that, in passing either out or in through the

gates,

gates, it is neceffary to cross two draw-bridges; and there is no access for idle people or ftrangers to walk upon the ramparts, which seem to be but ill provided with guns..

In the north east corner of the town ftands 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 feveral 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 cafe of a fiege. Here are alfo large ftorehouses, where great quantities of the Company's goods are kept, especially thofe 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 faid to be well supplied with powder, which is dispersed in various magazines, that if some should be deftroyed by lightning, which in this place is very frequent, the rest may escape.

Befides the fortifications of the town, numerous forts are dispersed about the country to the distance of twenty or thirty miles; these feem to have been intended merely to keep the natives in awe, and indeed they are fit for nothing else. For the fame purpose a kind of houses, each of which mounts about eight guns, are placed in fuch fituations as command the navigation of three or four canals, and confequently the roads upon their banks: fome 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 Chinefe rebellion of 1740. These defences are scattered over all

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1770. December.