JAVA 149 



wliich their museums and the magnificent botanic gar- 

 dens at Buitenzorg are excellently illustrative. Meester 

 Cornelis, with 71,000 inhabitants, is a suburb still 

 further to the south, but is hardly sufficiently connected 

 with tlie capital to be included with it. It is memorable 

 as the site of the engagement with Daendels in 1811, 

 which brought Java under English rule. Two other 

 towns, Tangerang and Bekasi, inhabited chiefiy by 

 Chinese, lie respectively to the west and east of the old 

 town, and much of the intervening ground is occupied 

 by the huts and holdings of small cultivators, so that the 

 city of Batavia, taken as a whole, occupies a very much 

 wider area than might from its population be expected. 

 Nevertheless, as has been said, it is neither the largest 

 nor the most thriving city in the island, and the explana- 

 tion of this doubtless lies partly in the difficulties that 

 the roadstead offers to shipping. So rapidly does the 

 land gain on the sea that the shore-line is over a mile 

 seaward of its position on the founding of the city. 

 After many proposals, it was at length settled to make 

 an artificial harbour at Tanjong Priok, a point some six 

 miles east of Batavia, and the work was successfully con- 

 cluded in 1887. Two enormous piers, each over a mile in 

 length, project from the shore into a depth of four fathoms, 

 sheltering between them a sheet of water half a mile in 

 width, which is capable of receiving the largest ships at 

 low water. Two large dry docks are also in course of con- 

 struction, and the new harbour is connected by road, rail- 

 way, canal, and telegraph with Batavia. The only draw- 

 back to this splendid harbour is its great unhealthiness. 



Although in no way a suburb of Batavia, from which it 

 is distant some 45 miles, Buitenzorg may be mentioned 

 here as the hill-station of that city, and the usual place 

 of residence of the governors - general. The railway 



