The Dutch Women Have Here Much Greater Privileges Than In Holland, Or
Any Where Else; As On Even Slight Occasions They Can Procure Divorces
From Their Husbands, Sharing The Estate Between Them.
A lawyer at this
place told me, that he has known, out of fifty-eight causes depending at
one
Time before the council-chamber, fifty-two of them for divorces.
Great numbers of native criminals are chained in pairs, and kept to hard
labour under a guard, in cleaning the canals and ditches of the city, or
in other public works. The castle of Batavia is quadrangular, having
four bastions connected by curtains, all faced with white stone, and
provided with watch-houses. Here the Dutch governor-general of India,
and most of the members of the council of the Indies reside, the
governor's palace being large, and well-built of brick. In this palace
is the council-chamber, with the secretary's office, and chamber of
accounts. The garrison usually consists of 1000 men; but the soldiers
are generally but poorly appointed, except the governor's guards, who
have large privileges, and make a fine appearance.
The governor-general lives in as great splendour as if he were a king,
being attended by a troop of horse-guards, and a company of halberdeers,
in uniforms of yellow sattin, richly adorned with silver-lace and
fringes, which attend his coach when he appears abroad. His lady also is
attended by guards and a splendid retinue. The governor is chosen only
for three years, from the twenty-four counsellors, called the Radts of
India, twelve of whom must always reside in Batavia. Their soldiers are
well trained, and a company is always on duty at each of the gates of
the city and citadel; and there are between seven and eight thousand
disciplined Europeans in and about the city, who can be assembled in
readiness for action on a short warning.
Besides Europeans and Chinese, there are many Malays in Batavia, and
other strangers from almost every country in, India. The Javanese, or
ancient natives, are very numerous, and are said to be a proud barbarous
people. They are of dark complexions, with flat faces, thin, short,
black hair, large eyebrows, and prominent cheeks. The men are
strong-limbed, but the women small. The men wear a calico wrapper, three
or four times folded round their bodies; and the women are clothed from
their arm-pits to their knees. They usually have two or three wives,
besides concubines; and the Dutch say that they are much addicted to
lying and stealing. The Javans who inhabit the coast are mostly
Mahometans; but those living in the interior are still pagans. The women
are not so tawny as the men, and many of them are handsome; but they are
generally amorous, and unfaithful to their husbands, and are apt to deal
in poisoning, which they manage with much art.
Batavia is very populous, but not above a sixth part of the inhabitants
are Dutch. The Chinese here are very numerous; and the Dutch acknowledge
that they are more industrious and acute traders than themselves. They
are much, encouraged, because of the great trade carried on by them, and
the great rents they pay for their shops, besides large taxes, and from
sixteen to thirty per cent. interest for money, which they frequently
borrow from the Dutch. I was told, that there were about 80,000 Chinese
in and about Batavia, who pay a capitation-tax of a dollar each per
month for liberty to wear their hair, which is not permitted in their
own country ever since the Tartar conquest. There generally come here
every year from China, fourteen or sixteen large flat-bottomed junks, of
from three to five hundred tons burden. The merchants come along with
their goods, which are lodged in different partitions in the vessels, as
in separate warehouses, for each of which they pay a certain price, and
not for the weight or measure of the cargo, as with us, so that each
merchant fills up his own division as they please. They come here with
the easterly monsoon, usually arriving in November or December, and go
away again for China in the beginning of June. By means of these junks
the Dutch have all kinds of Chinese commodities brought to them, and at
a cheaper rate than they could bring them in their own vessels.
Batavia is the metropolis of the Dutch trade and settlements in India,
and is well situated for the spice trade, which they have entirely in
their own hands. There are seldom less than twenty sail of Dutch ships
at Batavia, carrying from thirty to fifty and sixty guns each. Abraham
van Ribeck was governor-general when we were there. His predecessor, as
I was informed, had war with the natives of the island, who had like to
have ruined the settlement; but, by sowing divisions among the native
princes, he at length procured peace upon advantageous conditions. This
is one of the pleasantest cities I ever saw, being more populous than
Bristol, but not so large. They have schools for teaching all necessary
education, even for Latin and Greek, and have a printing-house. There
are many pleasant villas, or country seats, about the city; and the
adjacent country abounds in rice, sugar-plantations, gardens, and
orchards, with corn and sugar-mills, and mills for making gunpowder.
They have also begun to plant coffee, which thrives well, so that they
will shortly be able to load a ship or two; but I was told it is not so
good as what comes from Arabia.
We sailed from Batavia on the 11th October, 1710, and on the 19th came
to anchor in a bay about a league W. from Java head, and remained till
the 28th, laying in wood and water. The 15th December we made the land
of southern Africa, in lat 34 deg. 2' S. And on the 18th we anchored in
Table Bay in six fathoms, about a mile from shore.
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