ENVIRONS OF BATAVIA.
The lands comprehended under the denomination of the Batavian environs (Ommelanden), originally formed the principal part of the Jakátra dominions. The native chiefs were early deprived of the administration by the cautious policy of the Dutch, and the lands subsequently sold in property to Europeans and others. According to an official valuation in 1813, the amount of property in houses and lands, belonging to individuals, in the city of Batavia and its environs, including the private estates near Buitenzorg, exceeded eleven millions of rix-dollars silver, and the taxes were levied on that estimate. Various systems of government had been attempted in this district before the arrival of the British in 1811, but so inefficacious were they, that it was considered unsafe for Europeans to travel without arms. As a measure of police, a portion of this division, formerly comprized within the Ommelanden, was recently annexed to the regency of Buitenzorg, and formed into a separate administration. For the population of these two divisions, as they now stand, see General Table, Vol. I, page [62], Table II.