Cometimes greater practice among the Euro- of anatomy. Much friction of ' continually down- produced in their country. They have fometimes greater practice among the Europeans at Batavia, than thofe phyficians who have been regularly bred and come over from Europe; yet they have no knowledge whatever of anatomy. Much friction of the affected parts is one of their chief means of cure. This is done with two fingers of the right hand, which are preffed down by the left, and paffed continually downwards, after having firft anointed the part with water mixed with fine ground wood, or with oil. For the purposes of agriculture, they ufe buffaloes inftead of horfes, though there are enough of the laft, but of a diminutive fize. Thefe buffaloes are very large animals, bigger and heavier than our largeft oxen, furnished with great ears, and horns which project ftraight forward, and are bent inwards. A hole is bored through the cartilage of the nofe, and thefe huge animals are guided by a cord which is paffed through it. They are generally of an afh-grey colour, and have little eyes. They are fo accustomed to be conducted three times a-day into the water to cool themfelves, that without it they cannot be brought to work. The female gives milk, but it is little valued by the Europeans, on account of its acrimonious nature. THE city of Batavia, ftyled by our own and foreign travellers, who have formerly vifited it, the queen of the eaft, on account of the beauty of its buildings, and the immenfe trade which it carries on, is fituated very near the fea, in a fertile plain, in the kindom of Jaccatra, upon the river of that name, which running through the middle of the town divides it into two parts. To the north of the city is the feafhore; behind it to the fouth, the land rifes with a gentle and fcarcely perceptible acclivity up to the mountains, which lie fifteen or fixteen Dutch miles, or leagues inland; one of these, which is very high, bears the name of the Blue Mountain. The fingular circumftances, which gave rife to the building of this city, are too well known in hiftory, and too circumftantially related by Valentyn, that I fhould repeat them here*. I fhall only make mention of fuch changes, as have taken place in the city, fince the time his work was written (1726); at leaft, in fo far as I had occafion to obferve them. The beft account in the English language of the foundation and rife of Batavia, is to be found in the Modern Univerfal Hiftory, vol. x. page 304, &c. This is compiled from Valentyn's great work, entitled Oud en Nieuw Ooft-Indie, and from other Dutch writers. It was in 1619, that the governor general John Pietersen Coen, took the town of Jaccatra, which he in a great measure deftroyed, and founded another city, not exactly on the fame fpot, but very near it, to which he gave the name of Batavia, though it is faid, that he much wifhed to have called it New Horn, from the place of his nativity, Horn in North Holland. Although then an inconfiderable place in point of ftrength and beauty, he declared it the capital of the Dutch fettlements in India; his choice of the fituation was fo juft, his plan fo well contrived, and every thing throve fo faft under his care, that Batavia rofe with unparalleled rapidity to that magnificence and importance which have rendered it both the admiration and the dread of all the more eaftern nations of the Indies; and which ftill dazzle and overawe them, although the city has for these laft fifty years greatly declined both as to opulence and population. TR. The The city is an oblong fquare, the fhortest fides facing the north and fouth, and the longeft the east and weit. Through the middle of the city, from fouth to north, runs as before said the river of Jaccatra, over which there are three bridges, one at the upper end of the town, another at the lower part near the castle, and the third about the middle, being thence called the Middlepoint bridge. Two of these are built of ftone. Clofe by the middlemoft, there is a large fquare redoubt, provided with fome pieces of cannon, which command the river, both up and downwards. The breadth of the river within the city, is about one hundred and fixty or one hundred and eighty feet. It runs into the fea, paft the castle and the admiralty-wharf. On both fides of the mouth are long piers of wood and brick-work, about thre thoufand eight hundred feet in length, taken from the moat of the city. The eaftern pier, which was repaired and in a great measure rebuilt a few years ago, coft the Company thirty-fix thousand two hundred and eighteen rix-dollars in timber, and thirtyfix thousand three hundred and twenty rix-dollars in mafonry, making at forty-eight ftivers, f. 174,091,4.*; which is, in fact, a large fum, when it be confidered that the timber cofts the Company but little money, as it is produced in abundance in Java. The veffels belonging to the free merchants are laid up and repaired between thefe piers, on the weft fide; but along the eaft fide, the paffage remains open for the lighters which go in and out of the city, with the cargoes of the fhips. At the outward point of the eastern pier there is a fhed which ferves for a stable for the horses, which draw the small veffels and boats up and down the river. Opposite to this is a horn-work commonly called the Water-fort, which was built during the government of the governor general Van Imhoff, at an immenfe expence to the Company; for feveral large fhips were obliged to be funk on account of the depth of water on the fpot, in order to lay a good foundation for building the fort. It is conftructed of a kind of coral-rock, and defended by feveral heavy cannon †. It has barracks within it for the garrison; and there is no other approach to it than along the western pier. It is at prefent very much out of repair, and the walls begin to fink and fall down in many places. The objects for which this fort was erected, feem to have been the defence of the road, and of the entrance of the river; yet, in both these respects, it is now of little advantage, for the anchoring-place is now fo far removed from this fortification, by the encrease of the mudbank which lies before the river, that, although its guns might reach the ships in the road, little damage could be done on either fide, at fuch a dif tance; and as to what regards the defence of the river's mouth, that is of very trifling importance; for the daily and continual increase of the bar renders the water much too fhallow for large veffels, and an enemy would never feek to effect a landing there, but would always prefer an easy firm fea-beach, fuch as is to be met with beyond Ansjol §. About 16,000l. fterling. TR. The In 1793, when Lord Macartney vifited Batavia, this fort had mounted and dismounted fourteen guns and two howitzers. TR. Ary Huyfers, who wrote an account of the Dutch fettlements in India in 1789, and had been at Batavia a few years before, fays that, in his time, a trial had been made of the heavy artillery at the mouth of the harbour, and that it was found fufficient to command and protect the whole extent of the road. TR. At Ansjol, and at Tanjongpoura, to the eastward of the city on the fea-coaft, there are ftrong forts, and to the weftward at Ankay, Tangorang, and the Kwal. On the landfide Batavia is further covered The above-mentioned bank, or bar, lies directly before the mouth of the river, and extends a great way to the west, and but a little to the eaft, for which reafons fuch veffels as are deeply laden must go round by the east fide, close along the eastern pier, in order to get within the bar. It is continually increafing towards the road, by which the place where the fhips lie is more and more removed from the city. To the westward it is dry in fome places. Right before the mouth of the river, from which the fhallowest part of the bank is diftant about fix hundred or fix hundred and fifty feet, there is at low water no more than one, or one and a half foot; fo that a common fhip's boat cannot get over it, but must also go round its east end. When the fea-breeze blows fresh, it makes a troublesome and cockling fea; and a weft or bad monfoon feldom paffes without the lofs of fome veffels upon it. This fhoalness of the water is faid to be the confequence of a violent earthquake, which took place in Java in the latter end of the laft century, and by which the river of Jaccatra was partly stopped up. Yet the greatest increase of the bank has been fince the year 1730; and it is to be apprehended, that the river will in time become wholly unnavigable and useless by it. The caftle or citadel of Batavia, which forms the north boundary of the eastern divifion of the city is a regular square fortrèfs, with four bastions, which are connected by high curtains, except on the fouth fide, where the curtain was broken down during the government of Baron Van Imhof. The walls and ramparts are built of coral-rock, and are about twenty feet in height. It is furrounded by a wet ditch, over which, on the fouth fide, lies a drawbridge. Between the moat and the buildings within the fort, on this fide there is a large area or efplanade. In the centre of the buildings that look towards the city is a great gate, and then a broad paffage, with warehoufes on each fide, leading to another efplanade on the north fide, enclofed between the ramparts and the buildings, all of which is appropriated to the ufe of the Company *.. The government-house, which forms the left wing of the buildings looking to the fouth, is provided with numerous and convenient apartments, but is at prefent uninhabited. In it is a large hall, in which the council of India generally affemble twice a week; this is adorned with the portraits of all the governors general, who have ruled in India, fince the establishment of the Company. Close by is a little church, or chapel, ufually called the Caftle-church, and a little more forwards is a corps-de-garde, where a party of dragoons always mount guard. Over the castle-bridge there is a great plain, or fquare, planted with tamarindtrees, which afford a very agreeable fhade. The entrance to it from the city is over a bridge, and through a large and ftately gate. This is mounted by a bold cupola, from which an octagon turret rifes, containing a large clock, which is the only public one covered by the forts at Jaccatra, the watering-place, Ryfwick, &c.; though thefe are merely defences against the natives, and are most of them little better than fortified houses. TR. Captain Parifh's account of this fortrefs in Macartney's Embaffy to China, 1793, is as follows: A little above was the caftle; a regular square fort, but without ravelins or other out works. It had two guns mounted on each flank, and two or fometimes three on each face; they were not en barbette, nor properly en embrafure, but in a fituation between both, having both their difadvantages, without the advantages of either. The wall was of mafonry, about twenty-four feet high. It had no ditch, but a canal furrounded it at some distance. It had no cordon. The length of the exterior fide of the work was about feven hundred feet." Some further particulars, both of the town and of the caftle, are given in Mr. Stavorinus's fecond voyage. TR. to |