1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 805 



Kuyper has been mentioned before, discharge their 

 cargoes at wharfs which are very convenient for the 

 purpose. Here the guns, sails, and other stores of 

 the Falmouth, a man of war which was condemned 

 at this place when she w T as returning from Manilla, 

 were deposited, and the ship herself remained in the 

 harbour, with only the warrant-officers, on board for 

 many years. Remittances were regularly made them 

 from home; but no notice was ever taken of the many 

 memorials they sent, desiring to be recalled. Hap- 

 pily for them, the Dutch thought fit, about six months 

 before our arrival, to sell the vessel and all her stores, 

 by public auction, and send the officers home in their 

 own ships. At Onrust, they repair all their own 

 shipping, and keep a large quantity of naval stores. 



The country round Batavia is for some miles a 

 continued range of country-houses and gardens. 

 Many of the gardens are very large, and, by some 

 strange fatality, all are planted with trees almost as 

 thick as they can stand ; so that the country derives 

 no advantage from its being cleared of the wood that 

 originally covered it, except the fruit of that which 

 has been planted in its room. These impenetrable 

 forests stand in a dead flat, which extends some miles 

 beyond them, and is intersected in many directions 

 by rivers, and more still by canals, which are navi- 

 gable for small vessels. Nor is this the worst, for the 

 fence of every field and garden is a ditch ; and, in- 

 terspersed among the cultivated ground, there are 

 many filthy fens, bogs, and morasses, as well fresh 

 as salt. 



It is not strange that the inhabitants of such a 

 country should be familiar with disease and death : 

 preventative medicines are taken almost as regularly 

 as food ; and every body expects the returns of sick- 

 ness, as we do the seasons of the year. We did not 

 see a single face in Batavia that indicated perfect 

 health, for there is not the least tint of colour in the 

 cheeks either of man or woman : the women indeed 



VOL. II. x 



