POPULATION OF BATAVIA.

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1835 in vain. A friend asked it from a relation, who is a resident; but he replied, that his oath of office did not permit him to impart any information from the archives without an order from the GovernorGeneral.

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BATAVIA IN THE RAINY SEASON.

CHAPTER XXI.

SKETCHES IN JAVA.

February, 1836.

MANY regrets were expressed by our friends on shore, at different times, that our visit to Java was in the rainy monsoon, as we should leave it with very unfavourable, and at the same time, unjust impressions, and estimate its beauties too low. "Indeed," they said, "to see any thing of the country, or to have an idea of what Java really is, you should visit Buitenzorg." In truth, there is not much to say in behalf of a city, literally flooded by the rains, as Batavia was during our sojourn. In most of the streets of the old town, the water was a foot deep, and in some of them it rose to the hubs of the carriage wheels. Houses and stores were afloat, yet the Chinese were seen in their shops, plying their vocations as tailors, tinkers, and shoemakers, half-leg deep, while their naked children enjoyed fine sport,

sailing tiny boats about the room or before the door, as careless of the circumstance as if it had been a thing of course. In front of some houses were canoes, used to traverse the flooded streets. After seeing this, who will be surprised at the very extraordinary sickness and mortality of Batavia, exposed as the inhabitants must be to the morbiferous miasms, generated by a burning sun on the oozy streets, after the rainy season has passed away?

From the year 1730, till the month of August, 1752, a period of twenty-two years and eight months, the burials, according to the official documents printed in the appendix of Raffles' History of Java, was 1,119,375, about 4115 per month. Since that time, however, things have improved, and a Dutch physician of eminence assured me that the present mortality is very little greater than that of any country of Europe.

The number of Europeans who died at Batavia, from January 1st, 1831, until December 31st, 1835, was 2460, or an annual average of 492. Of these, 166 were transient (or foreigners) or an average of 33; so that a number greater than the whole European population (2299 in the year 1812), died in the period of five years!

Among other improvements at Batavia, there is a public hospital for the reception of foreigners and others, said to be superior to any establishment of the kind in India, and not inferior to many in the

world, but I regret that circumstances prevented from visiting it.

To carry off the torrents, which in the rainy season pour down upon the coast from the high land of the interior, numerous canals are necessary, and a great many were opened; but it was supposed, they were more than sufficient in number, and were prejudicial to the salubrity of the climate after intellect was on its march and had learned to fly in many Christian countries, it began an accelerated crawl among the Batavia Dutch; and in their eagerness to improve, they filled up many of the canals, without leaving enough to drain the country and keep the city free. Business was thereby almost brought to a stand, much property destroyed, and a popular commotion was dreaded on these accounts. The canals will be again opened, in all probability; for canals there must be wherever there are Dutchmen: they are as necessary to their existence as pipes and Scheidam. Is it not remarkable, that the Dutch, like the English, Spaniards and Portuguese, should have settled their colonies in countries whose natural features are similar to their own?

The weather at Batavia is, with little exception, nearly the same every year; the months of January, February, and March, are generally wet, the rainy season beginning about the middle of December, and continuing, with more or less violence, until the end of March, the wind commonly prevailing from west

OLD BATAVIA AT NIGHT.

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or north-west. During April and May, the winds are variable, the weather unsettled, with frequent lightning and thunder. In the month of June, the dry season begins, and frequently lasts till November, with eastward or south-eastwardly winds. In 1835, not a single drop of rain fell during nearly five months, from the beginning of May, until the end of October. But generally during this season, there is a shower from time to time, till the month of November, when the weather begins to change, and towards the end of December, the rainy season sets in again in full force.

The average range of the thermometer for the last five years, was, at six o'clock A. M., 74° F.; at meridian, 88°; at six o'clock P. M., 76°. The highest

range was 96°, and the lowest 72°.

So often were we urged to visit Buitenzorg, that we made up a party and determined to set out the first fair day; but rain it would, and we were disappointed day after day, and I returned on board in despair. Late one afternoon, I was notified, that on the following morning at daylight, rain or shine, the party would set off; I therefore made my preparations and hastened to the shore. The evening was the clearest that had occurred for many days, and augured well for the morrow.

When I landed the sun had already set; not a leaf stirred; there was only here and there a small cloud to be seen in the sky, and presently the stars appeared one by one, until the firmament was be