Of Late Years, Since We
Came Here, Many Wealthy Persons Have Built Their Houses Fire-Proof All
The Way To The Top:
But, on our first coming, there were none other in
that manner except the house of the Sabander, and those of the rich
Chinese merchants:
Yet even these, by means of their windows, and the
sheds around them, have been consumed by fire. In this town stand the
houses of the English and Dutch, built in the same manner with the
others; but of late the Dutch have built one of their houses to the top
of brick, but with much trouble and expence, in hopes of securing
themselves from fire.
The King of Bantam is an absolute sovereign, and since the deposition
and death of the late Emperor of Damacke he is considered as the
principal king of the whole island. He uses martial law on any offender
he is disposed to punish. If the wife or wives of any private individual
are guilty of adultery, upon good proof, both the woman and her paramour
are put to death. They may put their slaves to death for any small
fault. For every wife that a free Javan marries he must keep ten female
slaves, though some keep forty such for each wife, and may have as many
more as they please, but can only have three wives; yet may use all
their female slaves as concubines. The Javanese are exceedingly proud,
yet very poor, as hardly one among them of a hundred will work. The
gentry among them are reduced to poverty by the number of their slaves,
who eat faster than their pepper and rice grow. The Chinese plant,
dress, and gather all the pepper, and sow the rice, living as slaves
under the Javanese proprietors; yet they absorb all the wealth of the
land by their industry, from the indolent and idle Javanese. All the
Javanese are so proud that they will not endure an equal to sit an inch
higher than themselves. They are a most blood-thirsty race, yet seldom
fight face to face, either among themselves or with other nations,
always seeking their revenge after a cowardly manner, although stout men
of good stature. The punishment for murder among them is to pay a fine
to the king: but evermore the relations of the murdered person seek for
revenge upon the murderer or his kindred; so that the more they kill one
another the more fines come to the king. The ordinary weapon, which they
all wear, is a dagger, called a criss, about two feet long, with a
waved blade, crooked to and fro indenture ways, like what is called a
flaming sword, and exceedingly sharp, most of them being poisoned, so
that not one among five hundred wounded in the body escapes with life.
The handles of these weapons are of horn or wood, curiously carved in
the likeness of a devil, which many of these people worship. In their
wars they use pikes, darts, and targets; and of late some of them have
learnt to use fire-arms, but very awkwardly.
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