796 BAT 
down at table in the lioufe of his friend Dr. Hoffman 'with 
twelve other peri'ons j and on his return, in the fpace of 
only three weeks, he found that eleven of them had been 
carried off by fevers; fo that Dr. I-Ioffman and himfelf 
were the only furvivors out of the thirteen. Surely we 
cannot but exclaim with the poet, Quid non mortalia peElora 
cogis, Auri facra fames ? when we find perfons eagerly .fo- 
liciting appointments in fuch a peffilential climate as this ; 
nor need we wonder at their rapacious hafte in accumulat¬ 
ing treafures produced in the midfi of fuch hazards. .-The , 
table of annual deaths of Europeans, in the hofpital of 
Batavia, exhibits a melancholy and progredlively increaf- 
ing lift. The number in the year 1714, when it begins, 
was. 459 ; that of the concluding year, 1776, was 2S77. 
The molt rapid augmentation was obferved after the cut¬ 
ting of a canal from the country to thetown in 1733, and 
afteran addition made to the number of fick accommodated 
in the hofpital in 1761. For the fpace of ten or twelve 
leagues from Batavia tire land is a perfedft flat; beyond 
this are two hills, where men feem to polfefs ftrength and 
colour, where the difeafed readily find health, and the 
rich enjoy a charming retreat. This foil, fo unfriendly to 
man, is the bed for vegetation, and produces great quan- 
•tities of rice, Indian corn, millet, potatoes, indigo, &c. 
valt plantations of the fugar-cane grow almoft without 
culture, and produce a greater quantity of that vegetable 
fait than thofe of the American iflands. In the year 1619, 
Batavia was only a village pallifadoed round with bamboo 
cane; in a flat country, marlliy, and fubjeit to the inun¬ 
dations of a river running through it. At this time the 
Dutch made a fettlement here, who demoliflied the old 
and built the new town, which they called Batavia ; they 
cut canals and drains, to carry .off the water upon any 
land-floods. The bay has feventeen or eighteen illands, 
which defend the harbour, capable of containing 1000 
velfels from the violence of the winds and waves; two- 
large piers run out half a mile into the fea, between which 
joo (laves are conftantly employed in taking out the mud 
or foil, waffled out of the town, without which the mouth 
of the river would foon be choaked up : a boom erodes it 
below the town, which is fflut up at night, and guarded 
by a detachment from the main-guard. Here all veTels 
pay toll. A fea-gale riles every morning at ten to bring 
velfels into the bar, and a land one at ten at night to car¬ 
ry them out, one from the north, the other from the fouth. 
It is the reiidence of the governor-general of the Indies, 
appointed by the States of Holland every three years. Lat. 
6. 10. N. Ion.106. 50. E. Greenwich, See Java. 
BATA'VI AN REPUBLIC, the name aflumed by Hol¬ 
land, and the other United States, lince the French revo¬ 
lution. 
BATAVO'RUM INSULA, the ifland of the Bata¬ 
vians, in ancient geography. Of this ifland Tacitus gives 
the following, defeription. “The Rhine flowing in one 
channel, or only broken by fmall iflands, is divided at its 
entering Batavia, as it were into two rivers. One conti¬ 
nues its courfe through Germany, retaining the fame 
name, and violent current, till it falls into the ocean. 
Tljp other waffling the coaft of Gaul, with a broader and 
mope gentle ftream, is called-by the inhabitants Vahalis ; 
which name it foon changes for that of Mofa, by the im- 
menfe mouth of which river it difeharges itfelf into the 
fame ocean.” According to Tacitus, therefore, the ifland 
of the Batavians was bounded by the ocean, the Rhine, 
and the Vahalis, now the Wale. Ciefar extends it to the 
Mola, or Meufe ; but Pliny agrees with Tacitus. How¬ 
ever, this ifland was of greater extent in Tacitus’s time 
than in Caefar’s; Drufus, the father of Germanicus, hav¬ 
ing by a new canal conveyed the waters of the Rhine into 
the ocean, a confiderable way north of the former mouth 
of that river. The Batavi were a branch of the Catti, 
who, in a domeflic fe-dition, being expelled their country, 
occupied the extremity of the coaft: of Gaul, at that time 
uninhabited, together with this ifland fituated among 
ftioals. Their name Batavi they carried with them from 
BAT 
Germany; there being fome towns in the territory of the 
Catti called Battcnberg and Baltenhaufen. The bravery of 
the Batavi, efpecially the horfe, procured thenvnot only 
great honour from the Romans, being called their brothers 
and friends ; but an exemption from taxes, being obliged 
only to furnifh men and arms. The modern name of this 
ifland is Bstu, or Bctaza. 
Batavorum Oppidum, anciently a town in the ifland 
of the Batavia, mentioned by Tacitus, without any parti¬ 
cular name; which has given rife to feveral furmifes about 
it, fome fuppofing it to be Nimeguen, but Cluverius, Ba- 
tavadurvm or Batemburg , both without the ifland; which 
(ituation renders both thefe places inadmillible, fmee Ta¬ 
citus places this namelefs town within the ifland. 
BATBER'GEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftphalia, and biftiopric of Ofnabruck : two miles fouth 
of Quakenbruck. 
BATCH, f [from bake .] The quantity of bread baked 
at one time. Any quantity of any thing made at once, fo 
as to have the fame qualities. 
BATCH AJOUK', a town of Afia, in Armenia: ninety 
miles fouth of Erivan. 
BAT'CHELOR. See Bachelor. 
BATCHURISCH'KOI, a town of Ruflia, in the go¬ 
vernment of Archangel, on the eaft of the White Sea : 
eight miles north of Archangel. 
BATE, J'. [perhaps contracted from debate.} Strife; 
contention ; as, a make bate. 
To Bate, v. a. [contracted from abate. ] To leflen any 
thing; to retrench. To fink the price.—When the land¬ 
holder’s rent falls, he mult either bate the labourer’s wages, 
or not employ, or not pay, him. Locke. —To leflen a de¬ 
mand.— Bate me fome, and I will pay you fome, and, as 
molt debtors do, promife you infinitely. Skakefpeare. —To 
cut off; to take way.— Bate. but the laft, and ’tis what I 
would lay. Dryden. 
To Bate, v. n. Togrowlefs. To remit: with o^before 
the thing. 
Abate thy fpeed, and I will bate of mine. Dryden.. 
Bate feems to have been once the preterite of bite, as 
Shakefpeare tiles biting faulckion ; unlefs in the following 
lines, it may rather be deduced from beat. 
Yet there the fteel (laid not, but inly bate 
Deep in his flefti, and open’d wide a red flood gate. Spenf. 
Bate (George), an eminent phyfician, born at Morton, 
near Buckingham, in 1608. In 1637, he took his degree 
of doClor in phyfic, and became very eminent in his pro- 
feflion, infomuch that, when king Charles kept his court 
at Oxford, he was his principal phyfician. When the 
king’s affairs declined, Dr. Bate accommodated himfelf lb 
well to the times, that he became phyfician to the Char- 
ter-houfe, fellow of the college of phyficians, and after¬ 
wards principal phyfician to Oliver Cromwell. Upon the 
reftoration, he again got into favour with the royal party, 
was made principal phyfician to the king, and fellow of 
the Royal Society ; and this, we are told, was owing to a 
report that he gave the proteftor a dofe which haftened 
his death. Dr. Bate wrote in Latin an account of the com¬ 
motions in England, and fome other pieces. He died at 
his houfe in HattOn-garden, and was buried at Kingfton in 
Surrey. 
Bate (Julius), an eminent Englifli divine, rector of 
Sutton, near Petworth in Suflex. 1-Ie publiffled Critica 
Hebrrea, or an Hebrew-Englifh Diftionary, without points, 
4to. 1767. An Hebrew Grammar, 1750. A literal Tranf- 
lation of the Scriptures out of the original Hebrew, as far 
as the end of the fecond book of Kings; with many reli¬ 
gious tradts. 
BATE'AB, a town of North America, in the province 
of Yucatan : 190 miles fouth-fouth-weft of Merida. 
BATE'CUMBE, or Badecombe (William), an emi¬ 
nent mathematician, (lourilfled about the year 1420, in the 
reign of Henry V. He lludied at Oxford, where he ap¬ 
plied 
