298 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
It was he who established, the new cantonment at Weltervreden, 
about three miles east of the city, and removed the troops thither, 
being convinced that the great labour and vast wealth which had 
been expended on the castle of Batavia were worse than thrown 
away, as far as health and life are concerned. The large and 
commodious citadel was therefore abandoned ; and the health of 
the troops at Weltervreden, where they have since continued, 
honours the sagacity of the governor. 
But notwithstanding these heterodox innovations in the costume 
of the " Queen of the East," the city of Batavia still greets the 
eye of a stranger with many attractive beauties, which become 
more pleasing as he approaches it. Its form, we mean the ground 
plan, is an oblong square, and the streets are laid out in a corre- 
sponding manner, crossing each other at right angles. Each street 
has its canal in the centre, the sides of which are faced with 
smooth stone walls, rising in parapets on the two margins, eighteen 
inches or two feet above the level of the street. A row of trees, 
dressed in perpetual verdure, which is in most cases mingled with 
fragrant blossoms and odoriferous flowers, runs parallel with the 
canal on each side of it, and about six feet from, its margin. Along 
this shady promenade of two yards in width, there formerly stood, 
" in olden time" as we are informed, pleasant little arbours or 
pavihons, at convenient distances, where the luxurious burghers 
used to sit with their friends in the cool of the evening to enjoy 
their pipes, drink their beer, and muse upon the wealth, strength, 
and magnificence of their high-walled city ; each one at the same 
time inhaling a sufficient quantity of marsh miasmata to send 
dJiunadimoted American to his long home. 
The street on each side of the canal is from thirty to sixty feet 
in width, and is a fine gravelled road, lined on the opposite side 
near the footpath with a corresponding row of shady and flowering 
trees. This is the general carriage-way for wheeled vehicles of 
every description, horses, cattle, &c. The flagged sidewalk, or 
trottoir, is about six feet in breadth ; so that the whole width of 
the Batavian streets, including the canal, carriage-ways, and side- 
walks, varies from thirty-eight to sixty-eight yards. There were 
said to be twenty such streets in the city in seventeen hundred 
and ninety-three, with about thirty stone bridges over the canals. 
The style of architecture is, generally speaking, that of the Netber- 
