Batavia am usiwhoiesome City and t«2 Cause. 205 
felves into the fea, and where the coaft forms a large bay, called 
the Bay of Batavia, at the difiance of about eight leagues from 
the ftreight of Sunda. It lies in latitude 6° 10' S. and longi- 
tude 106 0 50' E. from the meridian of Greenwich, as appears 
from aftronornical obfervations made upon the fpot, by the 
Reverend Mr. Mohr, who has built an elegant obfervatory, 
which is as well furnifhed with inftruments as moil in Europe. 
The Dutch feem to have pitched upon this fpot for the con- 
venience of water-carriage, and in that it is indeed a fecond 
Holland, and fuperior to every other place in the world. There 
are very few ftreets that have not a canal of confiderable breadth 
running through them, or rather ftagnating in them, and con- 
tinued for feveral miles in almoft every diredlion beyond the 
town, which is alfo interfefled by five or fix rivers, fome of 
which are navigable thirty or forty miles up the country. As 
the houfes are large, and the ftreets wide, it takes up a much 
greater extent, in proportion to the number of houfes it con- 
tains, than any city in Europe. Valentyn, who wrote an 
account of it about the year 1726, fays, that in his time there 
were, within the walls, 1 242 Dutch houfes, and izooChinefe, 
and without the walls 1066 Dutch and 1240 C'hinefe, 
befides 12 arrack houfes, making in all 4760 : but this account 
appeared to us to be greatly exaggerated, efpecially with re- 
fpett to the number of houfes within the walls. 
The ftreets ate fpacious and handfome, and the banks of the 
canals are planted with rows of trees, that make a very pleafing 
appearance; but the trees concur with the canals to make the 
iituation unwholefome. The ftagnant canals in the dry feafon 
exhale an intolerable ftencb, and the trees impede thecourfe of 
the air. by which in fome degree the putrid effluvia would be 
diffipated. In the wet feafon the inconvenience is equal, for 
then thefe refervoirs of corrupted water overflow their banks in 
the lower part of the town, efpecially in the neighbourhood 
of the hotel, and fill the lower fi cries of the houfes, where they 
leave behind them an inconceivable quantity of flime and filth: 
yet thefe canals are fometimes cleaned ; but the cleaning them 
is fo managed as to become as great a nuifance as the foulnefs 
of the water ; for the black mud that is taken from the bottom 
is fuftered to lie upon the banks, that is, in the middle of the 
ftreet, till it has acquired a fufficient degree of hardnefs to be 
made the lading of a boat, and carried away. As this mud 
confifts chiefly of human ordure, which is regularly thrown 
into the canals evey morning, there not being a neceftary-houfe 
in the whole town, it poifons the air while it is drying to 2 
confiderable extent. Even the running ftreams become nuifancee 
in their turn, by the naftinefs or negligence of the people; for 
every now and then a dead hog, or a dead horfe, is ftranded 
upon the fhallow parts, ar.d it being the bufmefs of no parti- 
cul* 
