This Article May Be Considered As A Supplement To The Voyage
Of Sir James Lancaster, And Is Chiefly Adopted As Giving An Account Of
The First Factory Established By The English In The East Indies.
Being
in some parts rather tediously minute upon matters of trifling interest,
some freedom has been used in abbreviating its redundancies.
The
following character is given of it by the editor of Astley's
collection. - E.
"The whole narrative is very instructive and entertaining, except some
instances of barbarity, and affords more light into the affairs of the
English and Dutch, as well as respecting the manners and customs of the
Javanese and other inhabitants of Bantam, than if the author had dressed
up a more formal relation, in the usual way of travellers: From the
minute particulars respecting the Javanese and Chinese, contained in the
last sections, the reader will be able to collect a far better notion of
the genius of these people, than from the description of the country
inserted in the first; and in these will be found the bickerings between
the Dutch and English, which laid the foundations of these quarrels and
animosities which were afterwards carried to such extreme length, and
which gave a fatal blow to the English trade in the East
Indies." - Astl.
* * * * *
Sec. 1. Description of Java, with the Manners and Customs of its
Inhabitants, both Javanese and Chinese.
Java Major is an island in the East Indies, the middle of which is in
long. 104 deg. E. and in lat. 9 deg. S.[120] It is 146 leagues long from east to
west, and about 90 leagues broad from south to north.[121] The middle of
the island is for the most part mountainous, yet no where so steep as to
prevent the people from travelling to their tops either a-foot or on
horseback. Some inhabitants dwell on the hills nearest the sea; but in
the middle of the land, so far as I could learn, there were no
inhabitants; but wild beasts of several sorts, some of which come to the
valleys near the sea, and devour many people. Towards the sea the land
for the most part is low and marshy, whereon stand their towns of
principal trade, being mostly on the north and north-east sides of the
island, as Chiringin, Bantam, Jackatra, and Jortan or Greesey. These low
lands are very unwholesome, and breed many diseases, especially among
the strangers who resort thither, and yield no merchandise worth
speaking of, except pepper, which has been long brought from all parts
of the island to Bantam, as the chief mart or trading town of the
country. Pepper used formerly to be brought here from several other
countries for sale, which is not the case now, as the Dutch trade to
every place where it can be procured, and buy it up.
[Footnote 120: The longitude of the middle of Java may be assumed at
110 deg. E. from Greenwich, and its central latitude 7 deg.
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