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

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[Footnote 155: The Chinese who carry on any trade or profession, _i.e._
almost all of them, pay a monthly tax to the government. In Stavorinus's
time, this was about six shillings sterling a-piece.--E.]

There is nothing clean or dirty, honest or dishonest, provided there is
not too much danger of a halter, that the Chinese will not readily do
for money. But though they work with great diligence, and patiently
undergo any degree of labour, yet no sooner have they laid down their
tools than they begin to game, either at cards or dice, or some other
play among the multitude that they have invented, which are altogether
unknown in Europe: To this they apply with such eagerness as scarcely to
allow time for the necessary refreshments of food and sleep; so that it
is as rare to see a Chinese idle, as it is to see a Dutchman or an
Indian employed.

In manners they are always civil, or rather obsequious; and in dress
they are remarkably neat and clean, to whatever rank of life they
belong.[156] I shall not attempt a description either of their persons
or habits, for the better kind of China paper, which is now common in
England, exhibits a perfect representation of both, though perhaps with
some slight exaggerations approaching towards the caricatura.

[Footnote 156: Whatever may be their personal cleanliness in appearance,
their moral impurity, according to all accounts, is most gross and
detestable. We shall not pollute our page by the slightest mention of
the abominable gratifications in which they are said to indulge,
contrary to the most palpable enactments of nature.--E.]

In eating, they are easily satisfied, though the few that are rich have
many savory dishes. Rice, with a small proportion of flesh or fish, is
the food of the poor; and they have greatly the advantage of the
Mahometan Indians, whose religion forbids them to eat of many things
which they could most easily procure. The Chinese, on the contrary,
being under no restraint, eat, besides pork, dogs, cats, frogs, lizards,
serpents of many kinds, and a great variety of sea-animals, which the
other inhabitants of this country do not consider as food: They also eat
many vegetables, which an European, except he was perishing with hunger,
would never touch.[157]

[Footnote 157: The reader may turn to our account of Anson's voyage for
some particulars respecting their taste. Indeed, in almost every voyage
he will find abundantly disgusting information of this singularly
unamiable people. It is but fair, however, to allow them credit for one
of the virtues of necessity. Their capability of subsisting on such food
as others reject, is a very requisite part of education in their own
country, where the danger of famine is so great and frequent.--E.]

The Chinese have a singular superstition with regard to the burial of
their dead; for they will upon no occasion open the ground a second time
where a body has been interred. Their burying-grounds, therefore, in the
neighbourhood of Batavia, cover many hundred acres, and the Dutch,
grudging the waste of so much land, will not sell any for this purpose
but at the most exorbitant price. The Chinese, however, contrive to
raise the purchase-money, and afford another instance of the folly and
weakness of human nature, in transferring a regard for the living to the
dead, and making that the object of solicitude and expence, which cannot
receive the least benefit from either. Under the influence of this
universal prejudice, they take an uncommon method to preserve the body
entire, and prevent the remains of it from being mixed with the earth
that surrounds it. They enclose it in a large thick coffin of wood, not
made of planks joined together, but hollowed out of the solid timber
like a canoe; this being covered, and let down into the grave, is
surrounded with a coat of their mortar, called chinam, about eight or
ten inches thick, which in a short time becomes as hard as a stone. The
relations of the deceased attend the funeral ceremony, with a
considerable number of women that are hired to weep: It might reasonably
be supposed that the hired appearance of sorrow could no more flatter
the living than benefit the dead, yet the appearance of sorrow is known
to be hired among people much more reflective and enlightened than the
Chinese. In Batavia, the law requires that every man should be buried
according to his rank, which is in no case dispensed with; so that if
the deceased has not left sufficient to pay his debts, an officer takes
an inventory of what was in his possession when he died, and out of the
produce buries him in the manner prescribed, leaving only the overplus
to his creditors. Thus in many instances are the living sacrificed to
the dead, and money that should discharge a debt, or feed an orphan,
lavished in idle processions, or materials that are deposited in the
earth to rot.[158]

[Footnote 158: Their veneration for the dead is certainly excessive, and
by no means in unison with the rest of their character, which seems to
be made up of the grossest selfishness, avarice, and apathy. They often
visit the graves of their friends, strew flowers around them, and when
they leave them, deposit presents and sundry articles of provisions,
which, of course, are soon removed, though not by the dead. In this,
respect, then, it is very obvious that their mourning may not be quite
useless to the living.--E.]

Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this country is the
slaves; for by slaves the Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians, however
different in their rank or situation, are constantly attended: They are
purchased from Sumatra, Malacca, and almost all the eastern islands.
The natives of Java, very few of whom, as I have before observed, live
in the neighbourhood of Batavia, have an exemption from slavery under
the sanction of very severe penal laws, which I believe are seldom
violated. The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds
sterling; but girls, if they have beauty, sometimes fetch a hundred.
They are a very lazy set of people; but as they will do but little work,
they are content with a little victuals, subsisting altogether upon
boiled rice, and a small quantity of the cheapest fish. As they are
natives of different countries, they differ from each other extremely,
both in person and disposition. The African negroes, called here
_Papua_, are the worst, and consequently may be purchased for the least
money: They are all thieves, and all incorrigible. Next to these are the
Bougis and Macassars, both from the island of Celebes: These are lazy in
the highest degree, and though not so much addicted to theft as the
negroes, have a cruel and vindictive spirit, which renders them
extremely dangerous, especially as, to gratify their resentment, they
will make no scruple of sacrificing life. The best slaves, and
consequently the dearest, are procured from the island of Bali: The most
beautiful women from Nias, a small island on the coast of Sumatra; but
they are of a tender and delicate constitution, and soon fall a
sacrifice to the unwholesome air of Batavia.[159] Besides these, there
are Malays, and slaves of several other denominations, whose particular
characteristics I do not remember.

[Footnote 159: Other causes operate to the early extinction of these
unfortunate females,--the lusts of their masters, and the cruel
jealousy, ingenious and discriminating in torture, of their mistresses.
Stavorinus well explains what is here meant. Speaking of the ladies of
Batavia, he writes to this effect. In common with most women in India,
they have an extreme jealousy of their husbands and female slaves. If
they observe the least familiarity between them, they set no bounds to
their revenge against the poor creatures, who, in general, have no
alternative but that of gratifying their masters, or experiencing very
harsh usage from them. On such discovery, their mistresses punish them
in different ways, whipping them with ropes; or beating them with canes,
till they fall down exhausted. One of the modes of tormenting them, is
to pinch them with their toes in a certain tender part, against which
their vengeance is chiefly directed; for this purpose, these wretched
girls are made to sit before them in a peculiar position, and so
exquisite is their suffering, that they often faint away. Indeed, the
refinements in cruelty practised on them almost exceed belief.--E.]

These slaves are wholly in the power of their masters, with respect to
any punishment that does not take away life; but if a slave dies in
consequence of punishment, though his death should not appear to have
been intended, the master is called to a severe account, and he is
generally condemned to suffer capitally. For this reason the master
seldom inflicts punishment upon the slave himself, but applies to an
officer called a Marineu, one of whom is stationed in every district.
The duty of the Marineu is to quell riots, and take offenders into
custody; but more particularly to apprehend runaway slaves, and punish
them for such crimes as the master, supported by proper evidence, lays
to their charge: The punishment, however, is not inflicted by the
Marineu in person, but by slaves who are bred up to the business. Men
are punished publicly, before the door of their master's house; but
women within it. The punishment is, by stripes, the number being
proportioned to the offence; and they are given with rods made of
rattans, which are split into slender twigs for the purpose, and fetch
blood at every stroke. A common punishment costs the master a
rix-dollar, and a severe one a ducatoon, about six shillings and
eight-pence. The master is also obliged to allow the slave three
dubbelcheys, equal to about seven-pence half-penny a-week, as an
encouragement, and to prevent his being under temptations to steal, too
strong to be resisted.

Concerning the government of this place I can say but little. We
observed, however, a remarkable subordination among the people. Every
man who is able to keep house has a certain specific rank, acquired by
the length of his services to the Company: The different ranks which are
thus acquired are distinguished by the ornaments of the coaches and the
dresses of the coachmen: Some are obliged to ride in plain coaches, some
are allowed to paint them in different manners and degrees, and some to
gild them. The coachman also appears in clothes that are quite plain, or
more or less adorned with lace.[160]

[Footnote 160: The distinctions of rank, and all the punctilios of the
respective ceremonies and homage, are attended to at Batavia with the
most religious exactness. Stavorinus specifies many instances, which, to
some readers, it might be amusing enough to transcribe. But in fact, and
to be honest, the writer has neither time, inclination, nor patience to
interfere with such mummeries, or investigate the claims to precedency
and peculiarly modified respect set up by Dutch merchants, and their
still more consequential spouses. He has not the smallest pretensions to
the office of master of the ceremonies for any society whatever.--E.]

The officer who presides here has the title of Governor General of the
Indies, and the Dutch governors of all the other settlements are
subordinate to him, and obliged to repair to Batavia that he may pass
their accounts. If they appear to have been criminal, or even negligent,
he punishes them by delay, and detains them during pleasure, sometimes
one year, sometimes two years, and sometimes three; for they cannot quit
the place till he gives them a dismission. Next to the governor are the
members of the council, called here _Edele Heeren_, and by the
corruption of the English, _Idoleers_. These Idoleers take upon them so
much state, that whoever meets them in a carriage is expected to rise up
and bow, then to drive on one side of the road, and there stop till they
are past: The same homage is required also to their wives, and even
their children; and it is commonly paid them by the inhabitants. But
some of our captains have thought so slavish a mark of respect beneath
the dignity which they derive from the service of his Britannic majesty,
and have refused to pay it; yet, if they were in a hired carriage,
nothing could deter the coachman from honouring the Dutch grandee at
their expence, but the most peremptory menace of immediate death.[161]

[Footnote 161: The reader will remember what Captain Carteret says on
this subject, in the account given of his voyage.--E.]

Justice is administered here by a body of lawyers, who have ranks of
distinction among themselves. Concerning their proceedings in questions
of property, I know nothing; but their decisions in criminal cases seem
to be severe with respect to the natives, and lenient with respect to
their own people, in a criminal degree. A Christian always is indulged
with an opportunity of escaping before he is brought to a trial,
whatever may have been his offence; and if he is brought to a trial and
convicted, he is seldom punished with death; while the poor Indians, on
the contrary, are hanged, and broken upon the wheel, and even impaled
alive without mercy.[162]

[Footnote 162: Impalement, as practised at Batavia, is one of the most
shocking punishments ever invented. An iron spike, about six feet long,
is forcibly passed between the back-bone and the skin from the lower
part of the body, where a cross cut is made for its insertion, till it
come out betwixt the shoulders and neck, the executioner guiding the
point of it so that none of the vitals or large blood vessels may be
wounded. The under end of the spike is afterwards made fast to a wooden
post, which is then stuck into the ground, so that the miserable wretch
is raised aloft, where he is supported partly by the iron spike in his
skin, and partly by a little bench, projecting about ten feet from the
ground. He may remain alive in this most cruel situation for several
days, during which period he is tortured besides with hunger and thirst,
for no victuals, of any kind, are allowed him; and numerous insects also
continually torment him in the fervent heat of the sun. His misery is
the greater and longer, as the weather is clear and dry. Should a shower
of rain fall, he is soon relieved from torment, as it is noticed that
any water getting into the wounds speedily induces gangrene and death.
Stavorinus saw an execution of this sort, and relates some very
affecting particulars. The fortitude of the wretched sufferer was
astonishing. He uttered no complaint, unless when the spike was fastened
to the post, when the agitation occasioned by hammering, &c. appeared to
give him intolerable pain, so that he roared out. He did so again when
the post was lifted up and put into the ground. In this dreadful
situation he continued till death ended his torment, which happened next
day. This was owing to a light shower of rain, of about an hour's
continuance, half an hour after which he breathed his last. He
continually complained of thirst, which no one was allowed to relieve by
a single drop of water.--E.]

The Malays and Chinese have judicial officers of their own, under the
denominations of captains and lieutenants, who determine in civil cases,
subject to an appeal to the Dutch court.

The taxes paid by these people to the Company are very considerable; and
that which is exacted of them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no
means the least. They are paid monthly, and, to save the trouble and
charge of collecting them, a flag is hoisted upon the top of a house in
the middle of the town when a payment is due, and the Chinese have
experienced that it is their interest to repair thither with their money
without delay.

The money current here consists of ducats, worth a hundred and
thirty-two stivers; ducatoons, eighty stivers; imperial rix-dollars,
sixty; rupees of Batavia, thirty; schellings, six; double cheys, two
stivers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. Spanish dollars,
when we were here, were at five shillings and five-pence; and we were
told, that they were never lower than five shillings and four-pence,
even at the Company's warehouse. For English guineas we could never get
more than nineteen shillings upon an average; for though the Chinese
would give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they would give
no more than seventeen shillings for those that were much worn.

It may perhaps be of some advantage to strangers to be told that there
are two kinds of coin here, of the same denomination, milled and
unmilled, and that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon is
worth eighty stivers; but an unmilled ducatoon is worth no more than
seventy-two. All accounts are kept in rix-dollars and stivers, which,
here at least, are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. The
rix-dollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about four shillings and
six-pence English currency.[163]

[Footnote 163: The reader need scarcely be informed, that the statements
given in the text as to the respective value of the coin, are fitted to
the circumstances of the period at which the account of the voyage was
published. It was thought unnecessary to correct them to the present
times in this place.--E.]

SECTION XL.

_The Passage from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope. Some Account of
Prince's Island and its Inhabitants. Our Arrival at the Cape of Good
Hope. Some Remarks on the Run from Java Head to that Place, and to Saint
Helena. The Return of the Ship to England_.[164]

[Footnote 164: The original contains some remarks on the language of
Prince's Island, and a comparative view of it with the Malay and
Javanese. These have been omitted, because another opportunity will
present of treating the subject more fully than could be done here,
without anticipating information which belongs to another place. Much
additional light has been thrown on this interesting topic since the
date of this navigation.--E.]

On Thursday the 27th of December, at six o'clock in the morning, we
weighed again and stood out to sea. After much delay by contrary winds,
we weathered Pulo Pare on the 29th, and stood in for the main: Soon
after, we fetched a small island under the main, in the midway between
Batavia and Bantam, called Maneater's Island. The next day, we weathered
first Wapping Island, and then Pulo Babi. On the 31st, we stood over to
the Sumatra shore; and on the morning of new-year's-day, 1771, we stood
over for the Java shore.

We continued our course as the wind permitted us till three o'clock in
the afternoon of the 5th, when we anchored under the south-east side of
Prince's Island in eighteen fathom, in order to recruit our wood and
water, and procure refreshments for the sick, many of whom were now
become much worse than they were when we left Batavia. As soon as the
ship was secured, I went ashore, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr
Solander, and we were met upon the beach by some Indians, who carried us
immediately to a man, who, they said, was their king. After we had
exchanged a few compliments with his majesty, we proceeded to business;
but in settling the price of turtle we could not agree: This however did
not discourage us, as we made no doubt but that we should buy them at
our own price in the morning. As soon as we parted, the Indians
dispersed, and we proceeded along the shore in search of a
watering-place. In this we were more successful; we found water very
conveniently situated, and, if a little care was taken in filling it, we
had reason to believe that it would prove good. Just as we were going
off, some Indians, who remained with a canoe upon the beach, sold us
three turtle, but exacted a promise of us that we should not tell the
king.

The next morning, while a party was employed in filling water, we
renewed our traffic for turtle: At first, the Indians dropped their
demands slowly, but about noon they agreed to take the price that we
offered, so that before night we had turtle in plenty: The three that we
had purchased the evening before, were in the mean time served to the
ship's company, who, till the day before, had not once been served with
salt provisions from the time of our arrival at Savu, which was now near
four months. In the evening, Mr Banks went to pay his respects to the
king, at his palace, in the middle of a rice field, and though his
majesty was busily employed in dressing his own supper, he received the
stranger very graciously.

The next day, the natives came down to the trading place, with fowls,
fish, monkies, small deer, and some vegetables, but no turtle; for they
said that we had bought them all the day before. The next day, however,
more turtle appeared at market, and some were brought down every day
afterwards, during our stay, though the whole, together, was not equal
to the quantity that we bought the day after our arrival.

On the 11th, Mr Banks having learnt from the servant whom he had hired
at Batavia, that the Indians of this island had a town upon the shore,
at some distance to the westward, determined to see it. With this view
he set out in the morning, accompanied by the second lieutenant; and as
he had some reason to think that his visit would not be agreeable to the
inhabitants, he told the people whom he met, as he was advancing along
the shore, that he was in search of plants, which indeed was also true.
In about two hours they arrived at a place where there were four or five
houses, and meeting with an old man, they ventured to make some
enquiries concerning the town. He said that it was far distant; but they
were not to be discouraged in their enterprize, and he, seeing them
proceed in their journey, joined company and went on with them. He
attempted several times to lead them out of the way, but without
success; and at length they came within sight of the houses. The old man
then entered cordially into their party, and conducted them into the
town. The name of it is Samadang; it consists of about four hundred
houses, and is divided by a river of brackish water into two parts, one
of which is called the old town, and the other the new. As soon as they
entered the old town, they met several Indians whom they had seen at the
trading-place, and one of them undertook to carry them over to the new
town, at the rate of two-pence a-head. When the bargain was made, two
very small canoes were produced, in which they embarked; the canoes
being placed along-side of each other, and held together, a precaution
which was absolutely necessary to prevent their oversetting, the
navigation was at length safely performed, though not without some
difficulty; and when they landed in the new town, the people received
them with great friendship, and showed them the houses of their kings
and principal people, which are in this district: Few of them, however,
were open, for at this time the people had taken up their residence in
the rice-grounds, to defend the crop against the birds and monkies, by
which it would otherwise have been destroyed. When their curiosity was
satisfied, they hired a large sailing boat for two rupees, four
shillings, which brought them back to the ship time enough to dine upon
one of the small deer, weighing only forty pounds, which had been bought
the day before, and proved to be very good and savoury meat.

We went on shore in the evening, to see how the people who were employed
in wooding and watering went on, and were informed that an axe had been
stolen. As the passing over this fault might encourage the commission of
others of the same kind, application was immediately made to the king,
who, after some altercation, promised that the axe should be restored in
the morning; and kept his word, for it was brought to us by a man who
pretended that the thief, being afraid of a discovery, had privately
brought it and left it at his house in the night.

We continued to purchase between two and three hundred weight of turtle
in a day, besides fowls and other necessaries; and in the evening of the
13th, having nearly completed our wood and water, Mr Banks went ashore
to take leave of his majesty, to whom he had made several trifling
presents, and at parting gave him two quires of paper, which he
graciously received. They had much conversation, in the course of which
his majesty enquired, why the English did not touch there as they had
been used to do. Mr Banks replied, that he supposed it was because they
found a deficiency of turtle, of which there not being enough to supply
one ship, many could not be expected. To supply this defect, he advised
his majesty to breed cattle, buffaloes, and sheep, a measure which he
did not seem much inclined to adopt.

On the 14th, we made ready to sail, having on board a good stock of
refreshments, which we purchased of the natives, consisting of turtle,
fowl, fish, two species of deer, one as big as a sheep, the other not
larger than a rabbit; with cocoa-nuts, plantains, limes, and other
vegetables. The deer, however, served only for present use, for we could
seldom keep one of them alive more than four-and-twenty hours after it
was on board. On our part, the trade was carried on chiefly with Spanish
dollars, the natives seeming to set little value upon any thing else; so
that our people, who had a general permission to trade, parted with old
shirts and other articles, which they were obliged to substitute for
money, to great disadvantage. In the morning of the 15th, we weighed,
with a light breeze at N.E. and stood out to sea. Java Head, from which
I took my departure, lies in latitude 6 deg. 49' S., longitude 258 deg. 12' W.