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 i 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 command 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 
