a8 



MALAYAN ISLES. 



Massacre of 

 THE Chinese. 



" cover men that are fick, 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 Blaiienberg or blue moun- 

 tains, about forty miles diftant. For the benefit of a quick and 

 eafy conveyance of fuch as are in a convalefcent ftate, an excel- 

 lent road is formed for feventy miles, leading from Batavia to 

 the mountains, equal to any turnpike road in England. 



Batavia is the feat of the viceroy of the Indies ; the Dutch 

 fupport him with a fplendor equal to that of mod crowned 

 heads, nor does he go out without his guards, magnificently 

 . drefled; this is to inftil refpedt into the natives. The town is 

 prodigioufly populous; but neither the public or the private 

 buildings are particularly fine ; they pofljbly are in the fame 

 ftate as they were in the time of Mr. Nieuhoff, who in his tra^ 

 vels * has given views of many of 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. 



The Chinefe, attracted by thefweets of gain, fettled here in vaft 

 numbers ; they are faid to have had, in the year 1726, two thou- 

 fandfour hundred houfes in the city and fuburbs, fome of which 

 were the beft in Batavia ; many of them were levelled to the 

 ground in the infamous maffacre of this nation in the year 

 1740. It began on occafion of the celebration of a feftival in 



• Churchill's Col. vol. ii. 



honor 



