[Footnote 143: Kuyper, or Cooper's Isle, is considerably less than Onrust, and lies very near it. Several large tamarind trees yield it an agreeable shade. It has two pier-heads at its south side, where ships take in and discharge their freight.--E.]
The country round Batavia is for some miles a continued range of country houses and gardens. Many of the gardens are very large, and by some strange fatality, all are planted with trees almost as thick as they can stand; so that the country derives no advantage from its being cleared of the wood that originally covered it, except the fruit of that which has been planted in its room. These impenetrable forests stand in a dead flat, which extends some miles beyond them, and is intersected in many directions by rivers, and more still by canals, which are navigable for small vessels. Nor is this the worst, for the fence of every field and garden is a ditch; and interspersed among the cultivated ground there are many filthy fens, bogs, and morasses, as well fresh as salt.
It is not strange that the inhabitants of such a country should be familiar with disease and death: Preventative medicines are taken almost as regularly as food; and every body expects the returns of sickness, as we do the seasons of the year. We did not see a single face in Batavia that indicated perfect health, for there is not the least tint of colour in the cheeks either of man or woman: The women indeed are toast delicately fair; but with the appearance of disease there never can be perfect beauty. People talk of death with as much indifference as they do in a camp; and when an acquaintance is said to be dead, the common reply is, "Well, he owed me nothing;" or, "I must get my money of his executors."[144]
[Footnote 144: Those parts of the city are said to be most healthy which are farthest off from the sea; and the reason given for the difference is, that a great deal of mud, filth, blubber, &c. is thrown up by the tide close to the other parts, and soon putrifying from the extreme beat, adds materially to the influence of the generally operating nuisances. But it seems pretty plain that the difference can be but small, as the contaminated air must rapidly defuse itself throughout the neighbourhood. Admitting it, however, to be appreciable, the inference is very obvious as to what ought to be done for the bettering of Batavia, considered as a receptacle of human beings, and not as a putrid ditch from which gold is to be raked at the certain expense of life.--E.]
To this description of the environs of Batavia there are but two exceptions. The governor's country house is situated upon a rising ground; but its ascent is so inconsiderable, that it is known to be above the common level only by the canals being left behind, and the appearance of a few bad hedges: His excellency, however, who is a native of this place, has, with some trouble and expence, contrived to inclose his own garden with a ditch; such is the influence of habit both upon the taste and the understanding. A famous market also, called Passar Tanabank, is held upon an eminency that rises perpendicularly about thirty feet above the plain; and except these situations, the ground, for an extent of between thirty and forty miles round Batavia, is exactly parallel to the horizon. At the distance of about forty miles inland, there are hills of a considerable height, where, as we were informed, the air is healthy, and comparatively cool. Here the vegetables of Europe flourish in great perfection, particularly strawberries, which, can but ill bear heat, and the inhabitants are vigorous and ruddy. Upon these hills some of the principal people have country houses, which they visit once a-year; and one was begun for the governor, upon the plan of Blenheim, the famous seat of the Duke of Marlborough in Oxfordshire, but it has never been finished. To these hills also people are sent by the physicians for the recovery of their health, and the effects of the air are said to be almost miraculous: The patient grows well in a short time, but constantly relapses soon after his return to Batavia.[145]
[Footnote 145: On approaching the mountains towards the southern parts of the island, the heat of the air gradually diminishes, till at last, especially in the morning and evening, it is absolutely cold, and cannot be endured without the aid of such clothing as is used in winter in other countries. How materially the proper use of such a change of climate may operate to the restoration of health, can be easily imagined by any one who has felt the different effects of deleterious heat and invigorating cold. The island of Jamaica presents something very similar to what is now related of the different climates in the vicinity of Batavia.--E.]
But the same situation and circumstances which render Batavia and the country round it unwholesome, render it the best gardener's ground in the world. The soil is fruitful beyond imagination, and the conveniences and luxuries of life that it produces are almost without number.
Rice, which is well known to be the corn of these countries, and to serve the inhabitants instead of bread, grows in great plenty; and I must here observe, that in the hilly parts of Java, and in many of the eastern islands, a species of this grain is planted, which in the western parts of India is entirely unknown. It is called by the natives Paddy Gunung, or Mountain Rice: This, contrary to the other sort, which must be under water three parts in four of the time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills where no water but rain can come: It is however planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and reaped in the beginning of the dry. How far this kind of rice might be useful in our West-Indian islands, where no bread corn is grown, it may perhaps be worth while to enquire.[146]
[Footnote 146: The island of Java produces rice, which is the principal food of millions, in such quantities, as to have obtained the title of the granary of the East. Nearly three thousand cwt., it is said, were furnished by it in the year 1767, for the use of Batavia, Ceylon, and Banda. It is sown in low ground generally, and after it has got a little above the ground, is transplanted in small bundles, in rows, each bundle having about six plants. The waters of the rivulets, &c. are then allowed to flow on it till the stalk has attained due strength, when the land is drained. When ripe, the fields of rice have an appearance like wheat and barley. It is cut down by a small knife, about a foot under the ear. In place of being threshed, the seed is separated from the husk by stamping with wooden blocks.--E.]
Indian corn, or maize, is also produced here, which the inhabitants gather when young, and toast in the ear. Here is also a great variety of kidney-beans, and lentiles which they call Cadjang, and which make a considerable part of the food of the common people; besides millet, yams both wet and dry, sweet potatoes, and European potatoes, which are very good, but not cultivated in great plenty. In the gardens, there are cabbages, lettuces, cucumbers, radishes, the white radishes of China, which boil almost as well as a turnip; carrots, parsley, celery, pigeon peas, the egg plant, which, broiled and eaten with pepper and salt, is very delicious; a kind of greens resembling spinnage; onions, very small, but excellent; and asparagus: Besides some European plants of a strong smell, particularly sage, hysop, and rue. Sugar is also produced here in immense quantities; very great crops of the finest and largest canes that can be imagined are produced with very little care, and yield a much larger proportion of sugar than the canes in the West Indies. White sugar is sold here at two-pence half-penny a pound; and the molasses makes the arrack, of which, as of rum, it is the chief ingredient; a small quantity of rice, and some cocoa-nut wine, being added, chiefly, I suppose, to give it flavour. A small quantity of indigo is also produced here, not as an article of trade, but merely for home consumption.[147]