404 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP, xvn 



loDger any pretensions to more than the name ; they have all 

 changed their religion and become Lutherans, and have no 

 communication with or even knowledge of the country of 

 their forefathers. They speak, indeed, a corrupt dialect of the 

 Portuguese language, but much oftener Malay : none of them 

 are suffered to employ themselves in any but mean occupa- 

 tions ; many make their livelihood by hunting, taking in 

 washing, and some by handicraft trades. Their customs are 

 precisely the same as those of the Indians, like them they 

 chew betel, and are only to be distinguished from them by 

 their noses being sharper, their skins considerably blacker, 

 and their hair dressed in a manner different from that of 

 Indians. 



The Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians here are entirely 

 waited upon by slaves, whom they purchase from Sumatra, 

 Malacca, and almost all their eastern islands. The natives 

 of Java only have an exemption from slavery, enforced by 

 strong penal laws, which, I believe, are very seldom broken. 

 The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds sterling 

 apiece ; excepting young girls, who are sold on account of 

 their beauty ; these sometimes go as high as a hundred, but 

 I believe never higher. They are a most lazy set of people, 

 but contented with a little ; boiled rice, with a little of the 

 cheapest fish, is the food which they prefer to all others. 

 They differ immensely in form of body, disposition, and 

 consequently in value, according to the countries they come 

 from. African negroes, called here Papua, are the cheapest 

 and worst disposed of any, being given to stealing and almost 

 incorrigible by stripes. Next to them are the Bougis and the 

 Macassars, both inhabitants of the island of Celebes. They 

 are lazy and revengeful in the highest degree, easily giving 

 up their lives to satisfy their revenge. The island of Bali 

 sends the most honest and faithful, consequently the dearest 

 slaves, and Mas, a small island on the coast of Sumatra, 

 the handsomest women, but of tender, delicate constitutions, 

 ill able to bear the unwholesome climate of Batavia. 

 Besides these are many more sorts, whose names and 

 qualifications I have entirely forgotten. 



