i^S: THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 
. The Diortaiity of Europeans in Batavia m far bej^ond what 
is known in -any other settlement, exceeding, in the best of 
times, that in the- most fatal of the West India islands. Of 
persons newl}'^ arrived the usual calculation is that three in 
five will die the first year ; and, of the remaining survivors, the 
mortality is never considered to be less than from nine to twelve 
in the hundred, which is the usual proportion of seasoned Euro- 
peans, exclusive of infants. Among these, likewise, are not in- 
cluded either troops or seamen. The havock which this perni- 
cious climate, added to their debaucheries and irregular conduct, 
occasion among these thoughtless people, is truly deplorable. 
The register of deaths in the military hospital in 62 years 
amounted to 78,000 persons, or 1258 every year; and as the 
establishment of European troops seldom exceeded 1500, and 
Avas generally less than half that number, it may fairly be con- 
cluded that every soldier who has been sent out to Batavia has 
perished there, which is I believe literally the fact. In 1791 a 
detachment of troops, hired by the Dutch from the Duke of 
Wirtemberg, was sent from the Cape of Good Hope to this place, 
contrary to the express terms on which they agreed to enter. It 
consisted of six officers and 370 men . The following year five of 
the officers and 150 privates had fallen a sacrifice to the climate. 
The condition of a German soldier, thus lent out by his mer- 
cenary master to fight the battles of a foreign power in the 
most destructive of all climates, is equally deplorable with 
that of a negro slave ; and the petty princes v/ho raise a re- 
venue, for the support of their splendour, by such unwar- 
rantable and inhuman means, deserve to be considered, in 
this respect, in a point of view not more favourable th^ the 
common traffickers in negro slaves. 
