220 DEATH OF DE LA HAYE, [l^97- 



in our Robbers' Interest, thought that a lengthening out of 

 time, might in some measure efface the Idcea of his Infamy's, 

 old Crimes never appearing so crying as new. 



Some time after the Sieur de la Haye, one of our unfortu- 

 nate Companions, dy'd of a Bloody Flux at Batavia, that 

 being the ordinary Distemper reigning in those Countries ; 

 so that of five we were at first, there now remain'd but three, 

 the Sieurs Be — le, La Case, and my Self 



Altho' there have been many Accounts of Batavia^ the 

 Reader will not think me impertinent if I acquaint him with 

 what I have observ'd there during a year's Eesidence, 

 without having any regard to what Descriptions have been 

 made by others. 



^ The best account of the foundation and rise of Batavia is that in 

 Franpois Valentyn's great work, entitled Oud en Nieuw Oost Indie. It 

 was in 1619 that the Governor-General* took the town of Jaccatra, 

 which he in a great measure destroyed, and founded another city, not 

 exactly on tlie same spot, but very near it, to which he gave the name of 

 Batavia ; though it is said that he much wished to have called it New 

 Horn, from the place of his nativity, Horn in North Holland. Although 

 then an inconsiderable place, in point of strength and beauty, he 

 declared it the capital of the Dutch settlements in India ; his choice of 

 the situation was so just, his plan so well contrived, and everything 

 throve so fast under his care, that Batavia rose with unparalleled 

 rapidity to that magnificence and importance which have rendered it 

 both the admiration and the dread of all the more eastern nations of 

 the Indies ; and which still dazzle and overawe them, although the city 

 has for these last fifty years (1748-98) greatly declined, both as to 

 opulence and population. (Wilcocke, op. cit., i, 250.) 



* Ian Pieterszoon Koen, whose likeness is portrayed by Valentyn. 

 "The inestimable work of Valentyn", wrote Wilcocke, in 1793, to 

 which the reader is so frequently referred, " is scarce even in Holland ; it 

 consists of five large folio volumes, containing upwards of 1,000 copper- 

 plates." Mr. Wilcocke was in possession of a copy which he procured at 

 much pains and expense ; and he says that, " would his limits allow it, 

 he would be more copious in his extracts from it, as it is a treasure 

 locked up in a chest, of which few have the key, no translation having 

 ever been made of it." {Stavorinns, vol. ii, p. oSl.) There is a good 

 copy of this valuable work in the London Library. 



