all or any of these people; but I shall endeavour to give such
a general sketch or outline of the character and situation of
the Dutch, the Chinese, the Javanese, the Malays, and the
Slaves, as may serve to throw some light upon their respective
conditions in this great and once wealthy city, which,
from a miserable village of thatched hovels, rose into splendour
and opulence, by the adventurous and successful commerce
of the Dutch, in the happy days of their freedom and independence.
On our first visit to Batavia, we were received with great
ceremony at the gates of the castle by the old Governor Van
Alting, accompanied with the- wel edele heeren, composing
the Council of India. On this occasion we all suffered
greatly from the heat of the climate. It happened to be
about the middle of the day, when the sun was vertical, and
not a breath of wind stirring; the mercury in Fahrenheit’s
thermometer at- 89° in the shade; when, after abundant
ceremony in the open air, we were introduced into a close
narrow room, with a couple of windows at one end, nearly
filled with fat “ sleek-headed men,” dressed in suits of velvet
stiffened with buckram. In this narrow room, and mixed among
these warmly clad gentlemen, we were seated round a table
covered with crimson velvet, on chairs whose corresponding
cushions were stuffed with feathers. And though the very appearance
of the furniture alone was enough to induce a fever,
two or three little chafing-dishes with live coals were set on
the table, for the accommodation of those who were inclined
to smoke a pipe of tobacco, which, with wine, spirits, and
cakes, werfe handed round to the company.
The ceremony of our introductipn being ended, we proceeded
from the castle to the country-house of Van Weeger-
mari, the second in council, to which we were conveyed in
small carriages, each drawn by a pair of ponies, and driven
by a black coachman, who, mounted on a high box, with a
large three-cornered hat and an enormously long whip, formed
no unimportant part of the equipage. The distance we had
to travel was only about a mile beyond the city gate. We
entered his villa by a draw-bridge thrown across a moat, with
which it was surrounded, and which was intended as well for
ornament as defence. Behind the house was a considerable
piece of ground laid out with much formality into a sort of
pleasure garden intersected, rather injudiciously it would
seem in such a climate," with fish ponds and canals or, moie
correctly speaking, with puddles and ditches of dirty water.
The ground was well stocked with all kinds of tropical fruits,
and many rare plants peculiar to the island.. Orange trees
of a large size, shaddocks and mangoes were loaded with
fruit; and every individual of the vegetable world seemed to
flourish with a vigorous luxuriance, except a few sickly
European plants, which were here and there seen drooping
in pots. On observing to our host how very bountiful nature
had been to this island in the distribution of some of her
choicest stores, he replied, “ Yd mynheer het is wel waar.
“ You are very right, Sir, "we have abundance of every
“ thing ; and yet,” continued he, “ het is een vervloekt land,”
“ it is an accursed country, to say the best of it, where we
“ eat poison and drinle pestilence at every meal” In what
this poison and pestilence consisted will best appear by a
short description of Van Weegerman’s dinner.