300 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
Such circumstances might possibly exist with impunity in the 
latitude of European Amsterdam, but never between the tropics. 
Add to these, — the country, for miles around Batavia, was one 
complete sheet of tope and rice-fields, which could not fail to 
produce unwholesome exhalations. Many of these nuisances 
have been corrected or abated. 
Nothing, perhaps, can be more gratifying to the eye, than the 
general appearance of the fertile country which surrounds the 
city of Batavia ; diversified with plantations, fields, and gardens, 
and embellished with villas in the oriental style, which are sur- 
rounded by trees loaded with the most delicious fruits, and shrubs 
covered with the most fragrant flowers. The roads in the envi- 
rons are very numerous, and invariably hned with trees on each 
side, which not only give them a beautiful appearance, but render 
them very refreshing to those who make rural excursions twenty 
or thirty miles from the city. Our officers frequently extended 
theirs to the distance of forty miles. 
Besides the several lesser roads intersecting each other at 
various points, and interspersed with several little villages and ' 
country-seats, there is one which was commenced by Marshal 
Daendels, and afterward carried to completion by the English, for 
many miles from Batavia, through the low country of Krawang, 
intersecting, near Cheribon, the great military road, which crosses 
the Blue Mountains from Buitenzorg to Cheribon, and from 
thence along the north side of the island to its eastern extremity. 
Along this road, at intervals of less than five miles, are regular 
post stations and relays of carriage-horses. 
On the Jacatra road, which runs directly south from the city 
to Buitenzorg, near the Blue Mountains, there is, besides other 
elegant buildings, that of Goonong Sarie, the former residence of 
the old Dutch governors. The building, and the grounds belong- 
ing to it, are spacious. To the east, the eye is gratified by fertile 
plains and luxuriant rice-fields, exhibiting all that is cheerful and 
pleasant to the senses for administering to the comforts of human 
life ; while, on the opposite side, a dismal contrast presents itself 
in the vast cemetery filled with Chinese sepulchres, spreading to 
a great and melancholy extent. Numerous villas and country- 
seats also adorn the environs of Batavia in every direction ; — to 
the east, as far as ChiUingchug; and to the west, as far as Tan- 
