BAT 



21 



BAT 



artillery would be impracticable ; and towards the bay the 

 water is too shallow to admit even of a boat coming within 

 gunshot-range of the castle, except by the narrow entrance 

 to the river, which may be closed by booms. 



The diversified population of Batavia and its suburbs 

 within two miles, according to the census of 1 8 1 5, amounted 

 to 47,417, and consisted of Dutch, English, Portuguese, 

 Chinese, Moors, Arabs, Malays, Javanese, and negro slaves : 

 of these classes the Chinese are by far the most numerous 

 and important. In 1824 another census was taken, when 

 the number was 53,861, of whom 14,708 were Chinese. This 

 does not include the military establishment at Weltevreeden. 

 The Chinese farm the revenues, are the principal artisans, 

 and exclusively manufacture the sugar and arrack. They 

 have a separate quarter outside the town, the suburbs of 

 which occupy a larger space than the city itself: they suffer 

 greatly from disease, and the mortality among them is very 

 great, owing to the closeness of their apartments and their 

 gross manner of living. Many junks arrive annually from 

 China, bringing about 1000 settlers. In 1742, in conse- 

 quence of a supposed organised plan of insurrection on the 

 part of the Chinese, the Dutch government perpetrated a 

 most cold-blooded massacre, in which more than one half of 

 the Chinese were murdered. 



The country around Batavia is very beautiful and fer- 

 tile, though (lat in the vicinity of the town. Markets are 

 regularly held, one within and the other outside the city, 

 which are remarkably well supplied with fruit, which is the 

 most abundant article of vegetable luxury ; the principal 

 sorts are, pine-apples, oranges, shaddocks, lemons, limes, 

 mangoes, bananas, grapes, melons, pomegranates, custard- 

 apples, papaws, mangosteens, and rombusteens, with many 

 others mostly unknown in Europe. Fowls, ducks, and 

 , are plentiful and cheap ; turkeys, pigeons, and wild- 

 fowl are, in general, very scarce, and butcher's meat inferior 

 and dear: of fish there" is an abundant supply, and turtle 

 are sometimes found. The chief imports are opium and 

 piece goods ; the exports sugar, coffee, and spices : salt 

 also forms an important article of colonial commerce ; near 

 Batavia there are some very extensive works for making 

 salt from sea-water. 



The anchorage of Batavia is a bay, about eleven miles 

 long and six deep, capable of containing any number of 

 \ easels of the largest size ; it is studded with coral knolls 

 and protected by several small islands, averaging half 

 a mile in diameter, all of which arc occupied, and have 

 their different appropriations ; one is a convict establish- 

 ment ; another an hospital ; a third is covered with ware- 

 houses for articles of small value ; a fourth (Onrust) is the 

 naval arsenal, which is well fortified. 



These islands protect the bay from any heavy swell ; and, 

 as the bottom is very tenacious, it becomes a perfectly safe 

 anchorage. But when the sea-breeze blows strong it causes 

 a cockling sea, which renders the communication with the 

 t:,wu unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous, as the only 

 landing-place is up the river; the channel of which is 

 formed by wooden piers, projecting half a mile into the sea, 

 and across it is a shallow bar. The river Jacatra abounds 

 in large alligators. During the easterly monsoon, which 

 blows from April to October, the weather is uniformly fine 

 and warm ; but the north-west monsoon is always accom- 

 panied by heavy rains and strong winds. The summer range 

 of the thermometer is from 70 to 74 in the mornings and 

 evenings, and 80 at noon. The rise of tide is about six feet. 



Batavia lies in 6 9' S. lat, and 106 52' E. long. 



(Raflles's Jliitory of Java; Staunton's Embassy to 

 China ; Cook's Voyages ; Crawfurd's History of the Indian 

 Archipelago ; Horsburgh's East India Directory ; Hogen- 

 dorp's Coup d(Eil, &c. There is a plan of Batavia, for the 

 year 1G69, in Mandelslo's Travels.) 



BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. [See HOLLAND.] 



BATH, the chief city of Somersetshire, celebrated for its 

 natural hot springs, is about 108 miles from London, in 

 51 22' 32" N. lat., and 2" 3 1' 30" W. long. The town lies 

 in a valley, divided by the river Avon. Geologically it is 

 placed upon the great western oolitic range, which attains 

 its greatest elevation on Lansdown, above Bath, where its 

 summit is 813 feet above the level of the sea. This range 

 i intersected in the neighbourhood of the city by deep 

 transverse valleys, but re-appears on the south of the Avon, 

 where its elevation U so broken that its continuity is de- 

 stroyed. Its foction near Lansdown is a bed of upper, or 

 great oolite, varying from 40 to 1 JO feet in thickness, form- 



ing the brow of the hill ; then a gradual slope of fullers- 

 earth-clay ; next a terrace of inferior oolite with its under- 

 lying sand and sandstone, which falls with a precipitous slope 

 and rests on lias clay, or blue marl, and then on lias rock. 

 The freestone or oolite, worked from quarries situated to 

 the east and south of Bath, has furnished almost entirely 

 the chief building materials for the city. The soil upon the 

 declivities of the hills is generally rich, and the lower grounds 

 afford very fine pasturage. The country about is wooded ; 

 and from the inequality of the ground presents a great va- 

 riety of agreeable landscape. From the sheltered position 

 of the city, its temperature is mild. The following table 

 is made up from observations continued through fifteen 

 years, the temperature being noted from a thermometer 

 placed in a north aspect, and fifteen feet from the ground, 

 compared with tables given by Dr. Clark in his work on 

 climate 



Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. 



Near London . 40'93 37'GG 34'16 39'78 4!'51 

 Oxford . . 43-60 37'00 3G'90 37'10 -12'1U 

 Bath . . 45'35 42'25 37'75 4I-25 4140 



In the summer months, the same observations give the 

 mean temperature of Bath at 61 '20 in June, 64'20 in July, 

 and 62'70 in August. The mean annual depth of rain 

 which falls there is 35'30 inches, and the number of days 

 on which rain or snow falls is 162, every day being noted 

 wet on which sufficient rain fell to mark the pavement. 



This city was a Roman station, mentioned by Ptolemy, 

 under the name of Aqua; Calidee, and by him placed with 

 Venta and Ischalis in the country of the^BelgoB. It is also 

 placed in the 14th Iter of Antoninus, in connexion with 

 other stations, thus, Ab Isca Venta Silurum, M.P. ix. 

 Abone, M.P. ix. Trajectus, M.P. ix. Aquis Sulis. M.P. 

 vi. Verlucione, M.P. xv. Cunetione, M.P. xx. Spinis, 

 M.P. xv. Calleva, M.P. xv. The stations preceding and 

 following that of Bath are much disputed, and their actual 

 position is very doubtful. In the Nutitia, Bath is not 

 mentioned. It was intersected by the antient Roman road 

 leading from London into Wales, and by the road called the 

 Fosse, which ran from Lincolnshire to the south coast of 

 England. These two roads joined near the bridge crossing 

 a small stream in the parish of Bath Easton, about two 

 miles from Bath. They then continued in one course 

 through a great portion of the parish of Waleot, separating 

 again near Waleot church. The Fosse entered the nort'h 

 gate of the city from Waleot- street, passed through the 

 town, up Hollowayand on to llchester. The other road ran 

 up Guinea Lane, and on to the station of Ahone. Close 

 to the spot where these roads separated, and towards the 

 river, numerous coins, vases, and sepulchral remains have 

 from time to time been found. The Roman remains dis- 

 covered in Bath and in its neighbourhood have been con- 

 siderable. At Box a tessellated pavement of large dimen- 

 sions is at this time lying open, proof of the existence of a 

 villa on the spot. Several such remains have been found 

 in the country around Bath, especially at Bath-Ford, Dithe- 

 ridge, Horsland near Warley, andatWellow. In the city of 

 Bath itself, the foundations of extensive buildings have often 

 been traced. On the eastern side of the Fosse, near the - 

 north end of Stall-street, portions of a large temple were 

 discovered, and are still preserved in the Bath Institution. 

 Its front was towards the west, and consisted of a portico 

 with fluted columns, crowned with Corinthian capitals. 

 Towards the east of this building stood the principal 

 baths, the remains of which were discovered in 1755. In 

 other parts of the city, altars with inscriptions, tessellated 

 pavements, ornamented bricks, urns, vases, lachrymatories, 

 fibula), coins, &c., have been turned up, but none of the 

 inscriptions throw any light upon the history of the place. 

 No city in England can produce such a collection of local 

 Roman remains as is now deposited in the Bath Literary 

 and Scientific Institution : there is nothing like it in the 

 kingdom, except at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the col- 

 lection is from the whole of the northern field. The new 

 town is many feet above its antient level : in some places 

 more than twenty. The walls, as they existed until a late 

 period, are presumed to have been built, to a great extent, 

 upon the base of the Roman walls. There are accounts 

 and engravings of Roman inscriptions and sculptures incor- 

 porated in the walls, none of which are now existing. 



The modern city of Bath is of great beauty. Its streets 

 are very regular, clean, and, at night, well-lighted. Its 

 best buildings, such as the Upper Rooms, the north sidti 



