170 THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 
The bay of Batavia is circumscribed on the south by the 
coast of Java, and by fifteen or sixteen small islands inter- 
spersed in every direction from the east round by the north 
to the west. Its capacity is perhaps sufficiently great to 
contain the whole navy of England ; it is perfectly secure at 
all seasons, and the water is rarely disturbed in any violent 
degree by the winds. The principal islands that surround it 
are those which bear the names of Onrust, Purmerenf, Kuiper, 
and Edam. On the first is the naval arsenal, store-houses, 
saw-mills, and work-shops of the artificers. It is encompassed 
Avitli batteries, cl Jteur d'eau, which, however, afford only a 
feeble protection to the island, and none to the shipping in 
the bay, nor indeed to any of the passages leading into it. 
On Purmerent, which appears to be a very pleasant island, is 
situated an extensive naval hospital. 
The coast of Java, on this side of the island, is so very flat, 
and so thickly covered with tamarind, cocoa nut, canarj^, and a 
variety of other trees, that no part of the city of Batavia, except 
the cupola of the great church, is visible from tlie ships in the 
bay, although the distance is little more than an English mile. 
The great plain on which this city stands seems indeed to be 
of alluvions production, and appears to be extending in such 
i-apid progression tliat, with the assistance of the coral-making 
insects, it may not require the lapse of man^^ centuries before 
the whole bay, together with the sweep of islands that en- 
compass it, will become united with the Java continent. 
The mouth of the river, which empties its waters into the 
bay, has obviously travelled downAvards more tlian a hun- 
