The Coin current in Batavia. 229 
may have been his offence ; and if he is brought to a trial 
and convicted, he is feldom punilhed with death : while the 
poor Indians on the contrary are hanged, and broken upon 
the wheel, and even impaled alive without mercy. 
The Malays and Chinefe have judicial officers of their own, 
under the denominations of Captains and .Lieutenants, who 
determine in civil cafes, fubjedt to an appeal to the Dutch 
court. 
The taxes paid by thefe people to the Company are very 
confiderable ; and that which is exafted of them for liberty 
to wear their hair, is by no means the leaft. They are paid 
monthly, and to fave the trouble and charge of collefting 
them, a flag is hoifted upon the top of a houfe, in the middle 
of the town, when a payment is due ; and the .Chinefe have 
experienced it their in ter eft to repair thither, with their mo- 
ney, without delay. 
The money current here confilts of ducats, worth a hundred 
and thirty-two ftivers ; ducatoons, eighty ffivers ; imperial 
rixdollars, fixty ; rupees of Batavia, thirty; fchellings, fix-; 
double cheys, two ftivers and a half ; and doits, one fourth 
of a ftiver. Spanilh dollars, when we were here, were at 
five fhillings and five pence ; and we were told, that they 
were never lower than five fhillings and four pence, even at 
the Company’s ware-houfe. For Englilh Guineas we could 
never get more than nineteen fhiliings upon an average ; for 
though the Chinefe would give twenty fhillings for fome of 
the brighteft, they would give no more than feventeen fhillings 
for thofe that were much worn. 
It may perhaps be of feme advantage to ftrangers to be told 
that there are two kinds of coin here, of the fame denomina- 
tion, milled and unmilled, and that the milled is of mofi va- 
lue. A milled ducatoon is worth eighty ftivers ; but an un- 
milied ducatoon is worth no more than feventy-tvvo. All ac- 
counts are kept in lix-dollars and ftivers, which, here at leaft, 
are mere nominal coins, like our pound fterling. The rix- 
dollar is equal to forty-eight ftivers, about four fhillings and 
fix pence Englilh currency. 
CHAP. XV. 
The Pajfage f'oin Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope : Some 
Account oj Prince's If and and its Inhabitants , and a compa- 
rative View of their Language with the Malay and fa uanefe. 
O N Thurfday the 27th of December at fix o’clock in 
the morning, we weighed again and flood out to fea. 
Vol. II. U ' After 
