386 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



but they are obliged to get naturalized ; then 

 they can return no more to China. They are 

 permitted to navigate in the Moluccas; and 

 they can procure, at MacafTar and Batavia, 

 where the fhips arriving from China are admit- 

 ted, the merchandife which thefe vefTcls bring 

 from that country. They are all engaged in 

 trade. Some have purchafed, at a very high 

 price, the exclutive privilege of vending particu- 

 lar articles; accordingly, they fell them very 

 dear. They employ all forts of means to get 

 money : their reputation frequently fuffers by it ; 

 but, in this refpecl, they have loft every fpark 

 of fenfibility. Some Jews, to whom the Dutch 

 Eait- India Company has granted permiffion to 

 remain in the ifland, enter into competition 

 with them in trade ; but they are not fuccefsful 

 rivals ; the Chinefe have a great many advan- 

 tages over them, from their number and their 

 connexions. 



The cufiom-houfe officer of the Company is a 

 Chinefe; he is betides the chief of his country- 

 men fettled in the iiland, and is entrufted with 

 the police among them, in fuch unimportant 

 cafes as the adminiftration of Amboyna has not 

 referved for its own dcciflon. We went one day 

 to his houfe, with a Proteftant clergyman, and 

 drank there fome very good tea. The table was 

 covered with a great variety of fruits, extremely 



well 





