“ cover men that are tick, but to kill men who come there in
“ health.” The Jacatra, and other rivers which creep through
the city, almoft ftagnate. A dead buffalo or hog flung into them,
is perhaps many days in reaching the fea.. Thefe ftreams pafs
through a fenny plain, rifing from the Blauenberg or blue mountains,
about forty miles diftant. For the benefit o f a quick and
eafy conveyance of luch as are in a convalefcent ftate, an excellent
road is formed for feventy miles, leading from Batavia to
the mountains, equal to-any turnpike road in England.
Batavia is the feat o f the viceroy o f the Indies; th& Dutch
fupport him with a fplendor equal to that of moit crowned
heads, nor does lie go out without his guards, magnificently
drefled; this is to inftil refpedt into the natives; The town is
prodigidufly populous; but neither the public or the private
buildings are particularly fine ; they ;poffibly are in the fame
ftate as they were in the time o f Mr. Nieuhqff, who in his travels
* has given views of many o f both kinds. The whole city
is furrounded with gardens for a great diftance, and the canals,
cut far into the interior of the ifland, ferve to convey all forts of
provifions to market; many forts are difperfed over the country
to awe the inhabitants.
M a s s a c r e o f T h e Cbinefe, attradled by the fweets of gain, fettled here in vaft
t h e C h i n e s e . numbers; they are faid to have had, in the year 1726, two thoufandfour
hundred houfes in the city and fuburbs, fome of which
were the belt in Batavia; many o f them were.' levelled to the
ground in the infamous maflacre o f this nation in the year
1740. It began ,on occafion o f the celebration of a feftival in
* Churchill’s Col. vol. Ii.
honor
honor of their idol, the Jootfjede Batavia, a.hideous likenefs o f
the Devil (the Dutch only worfhipped him in private) ; the en-
thufiafm of' the devotees created diforder; they grew riotous,
and a guard fent to reftrain their zeal, executed its commiffion
with great vigor, which excited the rage o f the Cbinefe, fo that
much blood was fhed. The governor and council, under pretence
o f public fecurity, ordered every Cbinefe to be put to the fword,
women and children excepted ; reduced to defpair, they fet fire
to their own houfes; numbers perifhed in the flames, and thofe
who rufhed out were put to death by the foldiery ; above twelve
thoufand perifhed in this horrible affair. The Dutch publilhed
their account, which is left to the judgment of the reader to believe
or difbelieve; they would make the caufe to have been a
regular confpiracy, yet the governor, two of the counfellors o f
the Indies, and the attorney general, were depofed and impri-
foned; the Dutcb certainly thought them guilty. The wealth of
the Cbinefe feems to have been the inducement to the bloody
bufinefs. The governor’s effedts, which he was endeavoring to |
carry to Europe, amounted to half a million fterling. So little
were the Dutcb apprehenfive o f any harm from a new colonization
of the Cbinefe, that they permitted any number which
pleafed to fettle again in Batavia, and multitudes reforted there
as i f nothing had happened. The governor thought proper to
. fend an apology to the emperor o f Cbina, which he received
with unconcern, conlidering that his empire was overcharged
with inhabitants, and indifferent to fubjedts who had deferted
the tombs of their anceftors.
T h e Cbinefe feem to have been on the bell footing with the
Dutch.