JAVA 
149 
which their museums and the magnificent botanic gar¬ 
dens at Buitenzorg are excellently illustrative. Meester 
Cornelis, with 71,000 inhabitants, is a suburb still 
further to the south, but is hardly sufficiently connected 
with the capital to be included with it. It is memorable 
as the site of the engagement with Daendels in 1811, 
which brought Java under English rule. Two other 
towns, Tangerang and Bekasi, inhabited chiefly by 
Chinese, lie respectively to the west and east of the old 
town, and much of the intervening ground is occupied 
by the huts and holdings of small cultivators, so that the 
city of Batavia, taken as a whole, occupies a very much 
wider area than might from its population be expected. 
Nevertheless, as has been said, it is neither the largest 
nor the most thriving city in the island, and the explana¬ 
tion of this doubtless lies partly in the difficulties that 
the roadstead offers to shipping. So rapidly does the 
land gain on the sea that the shore-line is over a mile 
seaward of its position on the founding of the city. 
After many proposals, it was at length settled to make 
an artificial harbour at Tanjong Priok, a point some six 
miles east of Batavia, and the w r ork was successfully con¬ 
cluded in 1887. Two enormous piers, each over a mile in 
length, project from the shore into a depth of four fathoms, 
sheltering between them a sheet of water half a mile in 
width, which is capable of receiving the largest ships at 
low water. Two large dry docks are also in course of con¬ 
struction, and the new harbour is connected by road, rail¬ 
way, canal, and telegraph with Batavia. The only draw¬ 
back to this splendid harbour is its great unhealthiness. 
Although in no way a suburb of Batavia, from which it 
is distant some 45 miles, Buitenzorg may be mentioned 
here as the hill-station of that city, and the usual place 
of residence of the governors - general. The railway 
