304 cook's first voyage dec. 



is so shallow, that it will scarcely admit a longboat 

 to come within cannon shot of the walls, except in a 

 narrow channel, called the river, that is walled on 

 both sides by strong piers, and runs about half a mile 

 into the harbour. At the other end, it terminates 

 under the fire of the strongest part of the castle ; and 

 here its communication with the canals that intersect 

 the town is cut off by a large wooden boom, which is 

 shut every night at six o'clock, and upon no pretence 

 opened till the next morning. The harbour of Ba- 

 tavia is accounted the finest in India, and to all ap- 

 pearance with good reason ; it is large enough to 

 contain any number of ships, and the ground is so 

 good that one anchor will hold till the cable decays : 

 it never admits any sea that is troublesome, and its 

 only inconvenience is the shoal water between the 

 road and the river. When the sea breeze blows fresh, 

 it makes a cockling sea that is dangerous to boats : 

 our longboat once struck two or three times as she 

 was attempting to come out, and regained the river's 

 mouth with some difficulty. A Dutch boat, laden 

 with sails and rigging for one of the Indiamen, was 

 entirely lost. 



Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many 

 islands, which the Dutch have taken possession ofj 

 and apply to different uses. To one of them, called 

 Edam, they transport all Europeans who have been 

 guilty of crimes that are not worthy of death : some 

 are sentenced to remain there ninety-nine years, some 

 forty, some twenty, some less, down to five, in pro- 

 portion to theiroffence; and, during their banishment, 

 they are employed as slaves in making ropes, and 

 other drudgery. In another island, called Purmerent, 

 they have an hospital, where people are said to re- 

 cover much faster than at Batavia. In a third, called 

 Kuyper, they have warehouses belonging to the Com- 

 pany, chiefly for rice, and other merchandise of small 

 value ; and here the foreign ships, that are to be laid 

 down at Onrust, another of these islands, which with 



