A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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[Footnote 133: The houses are mostly built of brick, stuccoed without,
and with sash-windows, so as to have a light agreeable appearance. The
plan of their internal construction is much the same in the whole. On
one side of a narrow passage into which you enter from the street, you
have a parlour, and a little farther on, a large long room, lighted from
an inner court, as is mentioned in the text. The rooms in general are
badly furnished, and are floored with dark-red stones. The upper rooms
are laid out like the under ones; Few of the private houses have
gardens.--E.]

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.[134]

[Footnote 134: There are several churches for the reformed religion, and
service is performed in the Dutch, Portuguese, and Malay languages. The
description in the text is believed to apply to the Lutheran church,
erected during the government of Baron Van Imhof.--E.]

The town is enclosed 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.[135]

[Footnote 135: The wall is built of coral rock, and part of it,
according to Sir Geo. Staunton's account, of lava of a dark-blue colour,
and firm hard texture. It has twenty two bastions mounted with
artillery, and is surrounded by a broad moat, generally well filled with
water. There are five gates to the city; two on the south, the New Gate,
and the Diast Gate; one on the north, the Square Gate; Rotterdam Gate on
the east; and the Utrecht Gate on the west--E.]

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.[136]

[Footnote 136: The castle is a square fortress, having four bastions
connected by curtains, surrounded by a ditch. The walls are about
twenty-four feet high, and built also of coral rock. Besides the houses,
&c. mentioned in the text and near to what is called the Iron Magazine,
is the grass plot where criminals are executed: It is a square space,
artificially elevated, and furnished with gallows, &c. Close adjoining,
and fronting it, is a small building where the magistrates, according to
the Dutch custom, attend during the execution.--E.]

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.[137] 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.

[Footnote 137: One of the most shocking transactions ever recorded, is
here alluded to. It has been often described, for it horrified all
Europe, and excited most general disgust at the very name of Dutchmen.
They, however, endeavoured to make the affair look as decent as
possible, and when forced to abandon every other claim to favourable
interpretation, used at last the tyrant's plea, necessity. Rebellion
must be punished, it is admitted; a thousand reasons are in readiness to
justify the punishment of it. But, alas! in this case many hundreds were
punished who had never been in rebellion, never thought of it, never
knew it, were incapable of it. The vengeful spirit of their "High
Mightinesses" in Batavia, was glutted to the throat. Butchery could not
do her work more thoroughly. Not a drop of blood was left in Chinese
veins to circulate disaffection, or boil in the agony of despairing
hate. Extermination smiled in the gloom of Death,--merciful in this at
least, that she suffered not a heart to remain to curse her triumph. See
Modern Universal History, vol. xiv. ch. 7. Our limits will not permit
the dreadful recital.--E.]

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.[138] 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.

[Footnote 138: Mr Barrow does not give a more favourable report.
According to him, no less than three out of five of the new settlers at
this place die in the first year of their residence; and he learned from
the registers of the military hospital, that though the establishment of
troops never exceeded 1500 men, and sometimes was not half this number,
yet during sixty-two years the annual deaths amounted to 1258! Of those
Europeans who have in some degree got accustomed to the place, he says
that rather more than ten in a hundred die yearly; and that scarcely any
live beyond the middle stage of life. The natives, as might be expected,
suffer less, but even they are exposed to frequent visits of the old
enemy. In Mr B.'s opinion, the climate is not so injurious as the
circumstances of the situation, and the pernicious, though convenient,
prevalency of canals, aided, he admits, by the bad habits of the
people.--E.]

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.[139] 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.

[Footnote 139: The reader need not be reminded of the facility with
which Batavia was lately taken by our gallant countrymen. The accounts
of that successful expedition may be advantageously compared with what
is here given. This, however, they must do who are interested in the
subject. The introduction of it here would be very irrelevant--E.]

Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many islands, which the Dutch
have taken possession of, and apply to different uses.[140] 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.[141] In another
island, called Purmerent, they have an hospital, where people are said
to recover much faster than at Batavia.[142] 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 Onrnst, another of these islands, which with Kuyper
has been mentioned before, discharge their cargoes at wharfs which are
very convenient for the purpose.[143] 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.

[Footnote 140: There are fifteen islands in all, but only four of them
are used by the Company; and of these, Onrust is the chief. This is
about three leagues north-west from the city, and is fortified, as
commanding the channel. It is very small, but there are several
warehouses and other buildings on it.--E.]

[Footnote 141: Edam is three leagues north-north-east from the city. It
abounds in wood, and is remarkable for a large tree of the fig kind,
which is an object of high veneration among the superstitious
Javanese.--E.]

[Footnote 142: Purmerent is to the eastward of Onrust, and is half as
large again as that island. It is planted with trees. The hospital on it
is maintained by the voluntary alms of both the natives and
Europeans.--E.]

[Footnote 143: Kuyper, or Cooper's Isle, is considerably less than
Onrust, and lies very near it. Several large tamarind trees yield it an
agreeable shade. It has two pier-heads at its south side, where ships
take in and discharge their freight.--E.]

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: Preventative medicines are taken almost
as regularly as food; and every body expects the returns of sickness, as
we do the seasons of the year. We did not see a single face in Batavia
that indicated perfect health, for there is not the least tint of colour
in the cheeks either of man or woman: The women indeed are toast
delicately fair; but with the appearance of disease there never can be
perfect beauty. People talk of death with as much indifference as they
do in a camp; and when an acquaintance is said to be dead, the common
reply is, "Well, he owed me nothing;" or, "I must get my money of his
executors."[144]

[Footnote 144: Those parts of the city are said to be most healthy which
are farthest off from the sea; and the reason given for the difference
is, that a great deal of mud, filth, blubber, &c. is thrown up by the
tide close to the other parts, and soon putrifying from the extreme
beat, adds materially to the influence of the generally operating
nuisances. But it seems pretty plain that the difference can be but
small, as the contaminated air must rapidly defuse itself throughout the
neighbourhood. Admitting it, however, to be appreciable, the inference
is very obvious as to what ought to be done for the bettering of
Batavia, considered as a receptacle of human beings, and not as a putrid
ditch from which gold is to be raked at the certain expense of
life.--E.]

To this description of the environs of Batavia there are but two
exceptions. The governor's country house is situated upon a rising
ground; but its ascent is so inconsiderable, that it is known to be
above the common level only by the canals being left behind, and the
appearance of a few bad hedges: His excellency, however, who is a native
of this place, has, with some trouble and expence, contrived to inclose
his own garden with a ditch; such is the influence of habit both upon
the taste and the understanding. A famous market also, called Passar
Tanabank, is held upon an eminency that rises perpendicularly about
thirty feet above the plain; and except these situations, the ground,
for an extent of between thirty and forty miles round Batavia, is
exactly parallel to the horizon. At the distance of about forty miles
inland, there are hills of a considerable height, where, as we were
informed, the air is healthy, and comparatively cool. Here the
vegetables of Europe flourish in great perfection, particularly
strawberries, which, can but ill bear heat, and the inhabitants are
vigorous and ruddy. Upon these hills some of the principal people have
country houses, which they visit once a-year; and one was begun for the
governor, upon the plan of Blenheim, the famous seat of the Duke of
Marlborough in Oxfordshire, but it has never been finished. To these
hills also people are sent by the physicians for the recovery of their
health, and the effects of the air are said to be almost miraculous: The
patient grows well in a short time, but constantly relapses soon after
his return to Batavia.[145]

[Footnote 145: On approaching the mountains towards the southern parts
of the island, the heat of the air gradually diminishes, till at last,
especially in the morning and evening, it is absolutely cold, and cannot
be endured without the aid of such clothing as is used in winter in
other countries. How materially the proper use of such a change of
climate may operate to the restoration of health, can be easily imagined
by any one who has felt the different effects of deleterious heat and
invigorating cold. The island of Jamaica presents something very similar
to what is now related of the different climates in the vicinity of
Batavia.--E.]

But the same situation and circumstances which render Batavia and the
country round it unwholesome, render it the best gardener's ground in
the world. The soil is fruitful beyond imagination, and the conveniences
and luxuries of life that it produces are almost without number.

Rice, which is well known to be the corn of these countries, and to
serve the inhabitants instead of bread, grows in great plenty; and I
must here observe, that in the hilly parts of Java, and in many of the
eastern islands, a species of this grain is planted, which in the
western parts of India is entirely unknown. It is called by the natives
_Paddy Gunung_, or Mountain Rice: This, contrary to the other sort,
which must be under water three parts in four of the time of its
growth, is planted upon the sides of hills where no water but rain can
come: It is however planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and
reaped in the beginning of the dry. How far this kind of rice might be
useful in our West-Indian islands, where no bread corn is grown, it may
perhaps be worth while to enquire.[146]

[Footnote 146: The island of Java produces rice, which is the principal
food of millions, in such quantities, as to have obtained the title of
the granary of the East. Nearly three thousand cwt., it is said, were
furnished by it in the year 1767, for the use of Batavia, Ceylon, and
Banda. It is sown in low ground generally, and after it has got a little
above the ground, is transplanted in small bundles, in rows, each bundle
having about six plants. The waters of the rivulets, &c. are then
allowed to flow on it till the stalk has attained due strength, when the
land is drained. When ripe, the fields of rice have an appearance like
wheat and barley. It is cut down by a small knife, about a foot under
the ear. In place of being threshed, the seed is separated from the husk
by stamping with wooden blocks.--E.]

Indian corn, or maize, is also produced here, which the inhabitants
gather when young, and toast in the ear. Here is also a great variety of
kidney-beans, and lentiles which they call _Cadjang_, and which make a
considerable part of the food of the common people; besides millet, yams
both wet and dry, sweet potatoes, and European potatoes, which are very
good, but not cultivated in great plenty. In the gardens, there are
cabbages, lettuces, cucumbers, radishes, the white radishes of China,
which boil almost as well as a turnip; carrots, parsley, celery, pigeon
peas, the egg plant, which, broiled and eaten with pepper and salt, is
very delicious; a kind of greens resembling spinnage; onions, very
small, but excellent; and asparagus: Besides some European plants of a
strong smell, particularly sage, hysop, and rue. Sugar is also produced
here in immense quantities; very great crops of the finest and largest
canes that can be imagined are produced with very little care, and yield
a much larger proportion of sugar than the canes in the West Indies.
White sugar is sold here at two-pence half-penny a pound; and the
molasses makes the arrack, of which, as of rum, it is the chief
ingredient; a small quantity of rice, and some cocoa-nut wine, being
added, chiefly, I suppose, to give it flavour. A small quantity of
indigo is also produced here, not as an article of trade, but merely for
home consumption.[147]

[Footnote 147: Pepper, sugar, and coffee, are produced in very
considerable quantities, especially the first, which has been reckoned
one of the chief commodities of the place. As to sugar, one may have
some notion of the quantity yielded, by a circumstance noticed by
Stavorinus in his account. He says that thirteen millions of pounds were
manufactured, in 1765, in the province of Jaccatra alone. Much of it
used to be sent to the west of India, and a considerable part found its
way to Europe before the derangement, or rather annihilation of the
Dutch trade, by the effects of the revolutionary wars.--E.]

But the most abundant article of vegetable luxury here, is the fruit; of
which there is no less than six-and-thirty different kinds, and I shall
give a very brief account of each.

1. The pine-apple; _Bromelia Ananas_. This fruit, which is here called
_Nanas_, grows very large, and in such plenty that they may sometimes be
bought at the first hand for a farthing a-piece; and at the common
fruit-shops we got three of them for two-pence half-penny. They are very
juicy and well flavoured; but we all agreed that we had eaten as good
from a hot-house in England: They are however so luxuriant in their
growth that most of them have two or three crowns, and a great number of
suckers from the bottom of the fruit; of these Mr Banks once counted
nine, and they are so forward that very often while they still adhered
to the parent plant they shot out their fruit, which, by the time the
large one became ripe, were of no inconsiderable size. We several times
saw three upon one apple, and were told that a plant once produced a
cluster of nine, besides the principal: This indeed was considered as so
great a curiosity, that it was preserved in sugar, and sent to the
Prince of Orange.

2. Sweet oranges. These are very good, but while we were here, sold for
six-pence a piece.

3. Pumplemoeses, which in the West Indies are called Shaddocks. These
were well flavoured, but not juicy; their want of juice, however, was an
accidental effect of the season.

4. Lemons. These were very scarce; but the want of them was amply
compensated by the plenty of limes.

5. Limes. These were excellent, and to be bought at about twelve-pence a
hundred. We saw only two or three Seville oranges, which were almost all
rind; and there are many sorts, both of oranges and lemons, which I
shall not particularly mention, because they are neither esteemed by
Europeans nor the natives themselves.

6. Mangos. This fruit during our stay was so infested with maggots,
which bred in the inside of them, that scarcely one in three was
eatable; and the best of them were much inferior to those of Brazil:
They are generally compared by Europeans to a melting peach, which
indeed they resemble in softness and sweetness, but certainly fall much
short in flavour. The climate here, we were told, is too hot and damp
for them; but there are as many sorts of them as there are of apples in
England, and some are much superior to others. One sort, which is called
_Mangha Cowani_, has so strong a smell that a European can scarcely bear
one in the room. These, however, the natives are fond of. The three
sorts which are generally preferred, are the _Mangha Doodool_, the
_Mangha Santock_, and the _Mangha Gure_.

7. Bananas. Of these also there are innumerable sorts, but three only
are good; the _Pissang Mas_, the _Pissang Radja_, and the _Pissang
Ambou_: All these have a pleasant vinous taste, and the rest are useful
in different ways; some are fried in batter, and others are boiled and
eaten as bread. There is one which deserves the particular notice of the
botanist, because, contrary to the nature of its tribe, it is full of
seeds, and is therefore called _Pissang Batu_, or _Pissang Bidjie_; it
his however no excellence to recommend it to the taste, but the Malays
use it as a remedy for the flux.

8. Grapes. These are not in great perfection, but they are very dear;
for we could not buy a moderate bunch for less than a shilling or
eighteen-pence.