242 THE INDIAN AND ORIENTAL ISLANDS. 



phies in the houses where the unmarried men and boys eat and sleep. 

 They allow of polygamy : a man may purchase as many wives as he 

 pleases ; but their number seldom exceeds eight. All their wives 

 Eive in the same house with the husband, and the houses have no par- 

 tition ; but each wife has her separate fire-place. It is in this country 

 that most of the cassia sent to Europe is produced. The cassia-tree 

 grows to fifty or sixty feet in height, with a stem of about two feet in 

 diameter, and a beautiful and regular spreading head. Within about 

 ninety miles of Sumatra is the island of ENGANHO, which is very 

 little known, on account of the terrible rocks and breakers which en- 

 tirely surround it. It is inhabited by naked savages, who are tali and 

 well made, and who generally appear armed with lances and clubs, 

 and speak a different language from the inhabitants of any of the 

 neighbouring islands. 



The greatest part of JAVA belongs to the Dutch, who have here 

 erected a kind of commercial monarchy, the capital of which is Bata- 

 via, a noble and populous city, lying in the latitude of six degrees 

 south, at the mouth of the river Jucata, and furnished with one oi the 

 finest harbours in the world. The town itself is built in the manner of 

 those in Holland, and is about a league and a half in circumference, 

 with five gates, and surrounded with regular fortifications ; but its 

 suburbs are said>to be ten times more populous than itself. The go- 

 vernment here is a mixture of eastern magnificence and European 

 police, and held by the Dutch governor-general of the Indies. When 

 he appears abroad, he is attended by his guards and officers, and with 

 a splendour superior to that of any European potentate, except upon 

 some solemn occasions. This city is as beautiful as it is strong ; and 

 its fine canals, bridges, and avenues, render it a most agreeable re- 

 sidence. The description of it, its government, and public edifices, 

 have employed whole volumes. The citadel where the governor has 

 his palace, commands the town and suburbs, which are inhabited by 

 natives of almost every nation in the world : the Chinese residing in 

 this island were computed at 100,000 ; but about 30,000 of that nation 

 were barbarously massacred, without the smallest offence ever proved 

 upon them, in 1740. This massacre was too unprovoked and detesta- 

 ble to be defended even by the Dutch, who, when the governor ar- 

 rived in Europe, sent him back to be tried at Batavia ; but he never 

 has been heard of since. A Dutch garrison of 3000 men constantly 

 resides at Batavia; and about 15,000 troops are quartered in the 

 island, and the neighbourhood of the city. 



The ANDAMAN and NICOBAR islands. These islands lie at 

 the entrance of the bay of Bengal, and furnish provisions, consisting 

 of tropical fruits and other necessaries, for the ships that touch there. 

 They are otherwise too inconsiderable to be mentioned. They are 

 inhabited by a harmless inoffensive people. 



CEYLON. This island, though not the largest, is thought to be, 

 by nature, the richest ^nd finest island in the world. It is situated in 

 the Indian Ocean, near Cape Comorin, the southern extremity of the 

 Hither Peninsula of India, being separated from the coast of Coro- 

 mandel by a narrow strait, and is 250 miles long, and 200 broad. The 

 natives call it, with some show of reason, the terrestrial paradise ; and 

 it produces, besides excellent fruits of all kinds, long pepper, fine 

 cotton, ivory, silk, tobacco, ebony, musk, crystal, saltpetre, sulphur, 

 lead, iron, steel, copper ; besides cinnamon, gold and silver, and all 

 kinds of precious stones, except diamonds. All kinds of fowl ajid fish 



