The Chinese are subject to a set of officers (appointed by the governor and council) who are Chinese, and are previously chosen by that people: they are called captains and lieutenants, and hear all complaints, and their sentence is decisive; but cases of property, above a certain sum, and all felonies, are taken cognizance of by the fiscal and court of justices. The police established among them is so very good, that, except in cases of property, the fiscal or justices are seldom troubled with a Chinese criminal. They trade to every part of India, and the number of large junks which arrive annually from China, is between thirty and forty.
It is remarkable that the Chinese are the only strangers which are not affected by the unhealthiness of this place: indeed, much may be said in favour of their temperance and regular manner of living, although one would imagine that the close manner in which a number of them live together could not fail to produce diseases, but it certainly does not.
The roads, or rather handsome avenues, which lead from the different gates of the city, are lined with buildings, where nature and art have been exhausted to render them elegant and commodious beyond description: each house has a large garden, in which a degree of elegance and convenience is observable, equal to what there is in the magnificent piles which they surround. These houses are inhabited by the principal people of Batavia, where they pass most of their time, and those amongst them who have no inducement to return to Europe, and who enjoy their health, may spend their days very comfortably here.
The government of this island, and indeed of all the Dutch possessions in India, is lodged in the governor-general, who is assisted by a number of counsellors, called "counsellors of India," or "edele heerens:" twelve of these counsellors must reside at Batavia, but the number is not fixed; at this time, there is one who governs at each of the following places, viz. Cochin, Ceylon, Macasser, and at the Emperor's court at Jamarre, or Java, where, I am told, 400 European cavalry are kept, to do honour to the emperor.
The council meet every Tuesday and Friday in the council-room at the castle; the general presides, but, if prevented by ill health or any other circumstance, the director-general supplies his place, who, as well as the edele heerens, are received into the castle, and conducted to the council-room with great pomp and ceremony. Every thing relating to the civil and military government, commerce, and every other concern of the company, is transacted by this council, but the governor-general has a plenary power to put into execution any measure he may judge necessary for the good of the company.
The present governor-general, whose name is William Arnold Alting, has been resident upwards of thirty years at Batavia, eleven of which he has been governor-general: I am told his private character is very amiable and respectable, but how any man possessed of common feelings, can suffer such humiliations from those around him, I cannot conceive. When any person approaches the general to speak to him, his behaviour and address must be the most abject imaginable, and the respect and profound submission which every servant of the company, and every inhabitant must necessarily assume on these occasions, are little short of the adoration paid to the Divinity: this homage is carried to so great a height, that when the general enters the church, although the congregation may be at prayers, yet every person is obliged to get up and face him until he is seated in his pew, bowing as he passes.
The deference paid to the several ranks, is not confined to carriages, but extends to the cloathing of individuals, as no person under the rank of an edele heeren is permitted to wear velvet: there are a number of other distinctions in dress equally ridiculous, but they seem to be wearing away: a few years ago, the women were strictly forbid wearing any European dress, and ordered to conform to the Malay custom.
At the time I was at Batavia, there were only five European women on the island of Java, the rest being born of Malay or Creole mothers; and it is really distressing to see how much they affect the manners of their Malay slaves in chewing beetle, and other actions equally disagreeable. Their dress is a loose white or flowered muslin robe, which is open and large, reaching to the wrists and neck: but if the adjustment of their garments does not take up much time at the toilet, the arranging of their hair makes sufficient amends for it: they have in general very thick long black hair, which is gathered into a knot on the back part of the head, and is so nicely combed that not a single hair is out of its place; round this a wreath of diamonds is fixed, which is more or less valuable, according to the circumstances of the wearer. In the evenings, a large wreath of jessamine is also put round the hair, which gives a very agreeable perfume. Not more than two women in Batavia could speak any other language than Dutch or Malay, the former of which they understand very imperfectly, always preferring Malay.
The office of shebander is a principal one in this place, and is a situation of much profit; no stranger can transact the least business without his permission; the exports and imports are entirely regulated by him; every boat which goes into the road pays him a certain sum; he also regulates and comptrols the Chinese in the receipt of duties: this post is very laborious, but is also very lucrative.
Nineteen thousand pekul* of tin are brought every year from Palambam, or Sumatra, to the company's stores on Onrust, which is sent in their ships to China. The company send annually from hence to Europe 20,000 pekul of pepper, for which they pay on an average two stivers and an half per pound, and sell it in Europe for fourteen stivers per pound: they also export annually 200,000 pekul of coffee, at two stivers and an half per pound, which is sold in Holland at ten stivers per pound.