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.
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