404 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP, XVII 
longer 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 Nias, 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. 
