B A T A V I A. 203 
black of the Malabar ; and the dresses of the several nations, v 
both as to fashion and materials, are as various as their 
colour and cast of countenance. That class of men which 
bears a complete sway over tlie island is by much the least 
numerous ; it is even rare to see a single wel edele hoog ge- 
booren Hollander, a right honourable high-horn Dutchman, 
condescending to walk the streets. " Nothing from 
" Europe," he observes, " but Englishmen and dogs walk 
" in Batavia.'' Whenever he has occasion to take this 
kind of exercise, he puts on his full- dress snit of velvet, 
and is attended by a suitable retinue of slaves : sensible 
how very necessary it is, where power is but ideal, to put 
on an imposing appearance. But the Armenians, the 
Persians, and the Arabs, always grave and intent on busi- 
ness ; the half-cast merchants from the different ports of 
Hindostan ; and, above all, the Chinese, some in long sattin 
gowns and plaited tails reaching almost to their heels, and 
others crying their wares to sell, or seeking employment in 
their several professions, dressed in large umbrella hats, short 
jackets, and long wide trowsers ; the Javanese loiteiing care- 
lessly along, as if indifferent to every thing around them; 
the free Malays, with half-averted eye, looking with suspi- 
cion on all who come across them ; and slaves, from every 
nation and country of the East, condemned to trudge in the 
same path with the carriages : — all these, in the early and 
latter. parts of the day, may be seen bustling in crowds in the 
streets of Batavia. 
It would far exceed the limits I have prescribed, were I to 
enter at full length into the manners and peculiar customs of 
. D D 2 
