Unhealthy situation of Old Batavia. 1 8 1 



from the open sea, it is necessary to steer for some distance 

 up the canal-like channel of the Tjiliwoeng (pronounced Chili- 

 tvung) River. Old Batavia (Jacatra), built by the Dutch in 

 1619, on an extremely swampy and most unhealthy spot, is 

 at present entirely abandoned by the white population, and 

 the numerous handsome edifices still standing there are now 

 only used as warehouses, counting-houses, and offices gener- 

 ally. Where in days of yore a hundred thousand human 

 beings bustled to and fi'o, there are at present dwelling but a 

 couple of thousand wretched, poverty-stricken Portuguese and 

 Javanese. The Dutch in selecting such a site undoubtedly 

 took their own Amsterdam for a model, and the houses were 

 accordingly built as close as possible to each other, and 

 several storeys high, a mode of building eminently unsuited 

 to a tropical climate, and accordingly adding another element 

 of insalubrity. The thick fog, which every evening at sun- 

 down spreads over the city, situate as it is hardly above the 

 level of the sea, is not only very injurious to Europeans, but 

 proves quite frequently fatal, so that by 5 p.m. old Batavia 

 assumes the appearance of a city of the dead, and a regular 

 emigration takes place in waggons, on horseback, or on foot, 

 to the more elevated and therefore more healthy parts of the 

 town, to Ryswickj-Molenvliet, Weltevreden, &c., where dur- 

 ing the last twenty years an entirely new and very elegant 

 settlement has sprung up. Handsome villas rise amid the 

 blooming fragrant gardens, and everything is arranged in 

 accordance with the requirements of a tropical climate ; and 



