1832.] 
ISLAND OF JAVA. 
295 
and every part of the East Indies, Batavia is between the principal 
countries of the East Indies. It lies upon the naost frequented 
road from Hindostan to China and Japan, and is nearly about 
midway on that road. Almost all the ships, too, that sail between 
Europe and China, touch at Batavia ; and it is, over and above all 
this, the centre and principal resort of what is called the country 
trade of the East Indies; not only of that part of it which is 
carried on by Europeans, but of that which is carried on by the 
Rative Indians ; and vessels navigated by the inhabitants of China 
and Japan, of Tonquin, of Malacca, of Cochin China, and the 
Island of Celebes, are frequently to be seen in its port. Such 
advantageous situations have enabled these (wo colonies to sur- 
mount all the obstacles which the oppressive genius of an exclu- 
sive company may have occasionally opposed to their growth ; 
they have enabled Batavia to surmount the additional disadvantage 
of, perhaps, the most unwholesome climate in the world." 
During the eighteenth century, Batavia was deemed the finest 
European settlement in all Asia ; and although justly considered 
mnhealthy, from circumstances purely local, its wealth, trade, and 
commercial splendour procured for it the titles of " Queen of 
the East," and the " Tyre of the Oriental Archipelago." It was 
doubtless at the climax of its glory at the breaking out of the 
French revolution; and continued to retain that pre-eminence 
until nearly the close of the century. But the various European 
wars which successively grew out of, or flowed from that tremen- 
dous event, produced effects which were ultimately felt at the 
remotest corners of the globe. 
The same extraordinary state of things which gave such an 
unparalleled onward impulse to the mercantile enterprise of the 
United States, partially paralyzed that of every foreign competitor. 
Those were the " golden days" of our commercial prosperity ; 
and Columbia might have exclaimed, with Lady Macbeth — 
" That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold, 
What hath quenched them hath given me fire." 
Batavia, however, had not very sensibly felt the effects of those 
devastating conflicts in seventeen hundred and ninety-three. But 
soon after the invasion of Holland by the French, in the begin- 
ning of seventeen hundred and ninety-five, when the stadtholder 
