1770 FORTIFICATIONS 381 



enemy, I could not learn; from their appearance I should 

 judge them to be intended for the latter. As for powder, 

 they are said to be well supplied with it, dispersed in various 

 magazines on account of the frequency of lightning. 



Besides the fortifications of the town, there are numerous 

 forts up and down the country, some between twenty and 

 thirty miles from the town. Most of these seem very poor 

 defences, and are probably intended to do little more than 

 keep the natives in awe. They have also a kind of house 

 mounting about eight guns apiece, which seem to me to be the 

 best defences against Indians I have ever seen. They are 

 generally placed in such situations as will cominand three 

 or four canals, and as many roads upon their banks. Some 

 there are in the town itself, and one of these it was which, 

 in the time of the Chinese rebellion (as the Dutch call it), 

 quickly levelled all the best Chinese houses to the ground. 

 Indeed, I was told that the natives are more afraid of these 

 than of any other kind of defences. There are many of 

 them in all parts of Java, and on the other islands in the 

 possession of the Dutch. I lamented much not being able 

 to get a drawing and plan of one, which, indeed, had I been 

 well, I might easily have done, as I suppose they never 

 could be jealous of a defence which one gun would destroy 

 in half an hour. 



Even if the Dutch fortifications are as weak and defence- 

 less as I suppose, they have, nevertheless, some advantages 

 in their situation among morasses, where the roads, which 

 are almost always a bank thrown up between a canal and a 

 ditch, might easily be destroyed. This would very much 

 delay the bringing up of heavy artillery, unless this could 

 be shipped upon some canal, and a sufficient number of 

 proper boats secured to transport it. There are plenty of 

 these, but they all muster every night under the guns 

 of the Castle, from whence it would be impossible to take 

 them. Delays, however, from whatever cause they might 

 happen, would be inevitably fatal. In less than a week 

 we were sensible of the unhealthiness of the climate, and 

 in a month's time one half of the ship's company were 



