But Now, There Was-Nothing But Hugging And Shaking
Of Hands, Blessing Their Good Stars, And Questioning If Such A Paradise
Existed On Earth; And All Because They Had Arrack For Eight-Pence A
Gallon, And Sugar For A Penny A Pound.
Yet next minute they were all by
the ears, disputing about who should put the ingredients together; for
the weather was so hot, and the ingredients so excessively cheap, that
a little labour was now a matter of great importance among them.
Soon after our arrival at Batavia we proceeded to refit our ships,
beginning with the Marquis; but on coming down to her bends, we found
both these and the stern and stern-port so rotten and worm-eaten, that
on a survey of carpenters she was found incapable of being rendered fit
for proceeding round the Cape of Good Hope, on which we had to hire a
vessel to take in her loading. We then applied ourselves to refit the
other ships, which we did at the island of Horn, not being allowed to do
so at Onrust, where the Dutch clean and careen all their ships. We
hove down the Duke and Duchess and Bachelor, the sheathing of which
ships were very much worm-eaten in several places. In heaving down, the
Duchess sprung her fore-mast, which we replaced by a new one. When the
ships were refitted, we returned to Batavia road, where we rigged three
of them, and sold the Marquis, after taking out all her goods and
stores, and distributing her officers and men into the others. During
our stay at Batavia, the weather was exceedingly hot, and many of our
officers and men fell sick, among whom I was one, the prevalent disease
being the flux, of which the master of the Duke and gunner of the
Duchess died, and several of our men. A young man belonging to the
Duchess, having ventured into the sea to swim, had both his legs snapped
off by a shark, and while endeavouring to take him on board, the shark
bit off the lower part of his belly. We were allowed free access to the
town and markets, yet found it difficult to procure salt-meat, so that
we had to kill bullocks for ourselves, and pickled the flesh, taking out
all the bones. Arrack, rice, and fowls were very cheap, and we bought
beef for two stivers, or two-pence a pound.
There are various descriptions of this famous city, yet, as what I have
to say may serve to exhibit a state of things as they were when we were
there, I flatter myself that the following succinct account may neither
be found useless nor disagreeable. The city of Batavia is situated on
the N.W. side of the famous island of Java, in lat. 5 deg. 50' S.[232]
During the whole year the east and west monsoons, or trade-winds, blow
along shore; besides which it is refreshed by the ordinary land and sea
breezes, which greatly cool the air, otherwise it would be intolerably
hot.
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