I s l a n d o f
C r a c a t o a .
B a n t a m .
tion advances fo rapidly, that notwithftanding what is cut for the
u feo f the ihipping, it feems nothing impaired. It has fome inhabitants
fo like in figure, color, manners, and even language, to
thofe of the fouth .fea iflands, as .greatly to ftrike Captain Cook,
who anchored here in 1780, after having beenfolong converfant
with them. The chief bufinefs o f the natives is to fupply the
lliipping with fowls, fmall tortoifes, or green turtle, hog deer
weighing about forty pounds; monkies, fome vegetables, and
above all water.
T h i s ifland is as unhealthy as the reft o f thefe fatal coafts;
which has induced many .navigators to prefer taking water at
the ifle o f Cracatoa, a fmall fpot about nine miles in circumference,
and fome leagues to the north-eaft o f Prince's ifland.
In one part is a hot fpring, ufed by the natives as a bath. The
ifland is high, riling gradually from the fea, and covered with
trees, in the coral reefs which Ikirt the Ihores are plenty of
finall green turtle.
B e t w e e n Hog point in Sumatra, and Cickorang in Java, the
ftreights fuddenly contract. In the middle are the fmall ifles,
called Midcbannel ifland, the IJle de Milieu, and the rock Le grand
Toque. Le Brun * calls the breadth a league and a half. After
doubling the point, appears the bay o f Bantam, deep, round,
and fprinkled over with many fmall ifles ; at the bottom is the
city, capital of the kingdom. After Sir James Lancajler left
Acbeen he failed to this port; the king was one of the Indian mo-
narchs whom Elizabeth honored with her correfpondence; her
letter was gracioufly received. Lancajler eftablilhed here our
* Vol. ii. 38.
firft
firft fadtory in the Indian feas, and after loading his fhip with
pepper, took his departure for England.
T h e Portuguefe vifited this coaft in the time of the great P o r t u g u e s e .
Albuquerque; the commanders in that expedition were Roderigo
Brittio, and Ferdinand Andrada, who took part with one o f the
princes of the country, engaged in war with the king of Bantam,
and gained a great victory over his fleet. Not long after
Gegrge Albuquerque made an attempt to ftorm Bantam *, but was
repulfed with great lofs. Lacfemanna, the general o f Malacca,
the ableft officer o f his age, had the moft confiderable (hare in
the defeat.
A t the firft arrival of the Europeans, Java (according to Sir
Thomas Herbert +) was under one fupreme, the emperor of Ma-
tara\ next to him was the king of Bantam, whom Sir Thomas
only ftyles a viceroy ; poflibly at firft the government might have
been like that of the primaeval eftablilhments o f Sumatra, and in
after times the delegated powers aflumed an independenc.
T h e fubtil Hutch took more efficacious methods to gain D u t c h .
footing in the country ; after various great events, various q u a r rels
and reconciliations, by an effential fervice done in 1680 to
one o f the monarch?, ¡of Bantam, they received from him an
exclufive grant of the trade of his kingdom. This they fupport
by a flight armed force; in fadt, they are real mailers o f the
ifland, notwithftanding they pay a pretended refpedt to the native
powers. Before that acquifition of privilege by the Hutch,
the Englijb and Danes had very flourifhing factories, but both
were expelled by the influence o f their Batavian rival.
* Oibrio, vol. ii. p. 346. t P. 200.
V o l . I V . E Le