[Footnote 157: The reader may turn to our account of Anson's voyage for some particulars respecting their taste. Indeed, in almost every voyage he will find abundantly disgusting information of this singularly unamiable people. It is but fair, however, to allow them credit for one of the virtues of necessity. Their capability of subsisting on such food as others reject, is a very requisite part of education in their own country, where the danger of famine is so great and frequent.--E.]
The Chinese have a singular superstition with regard to the burial of their dead; for they will upon no occasion open the ground a second time where a body has been interred. Their burying-grounds, therefore, in the neighbourhood of Batavia, cover many hundred acres, and the Dutch, grudging the waste of so much land, will not sell any for this purpose but at the most exorbitant price. The Chinese, however, contrive to raise the purchase-money, and afford another instance of the folly and weakness of human nature, in transferring a regard for the living to the dead, and making that the object of solicitude and expence, which cannot receive the least benefit from either. Under the influence of this universal prejudice, they take an uncommon method to preserve the body entire, and prevent the remains of it from being mixed with the earth that surrounds it. They enclose it in a large thick coffin of wood, not made of planks joined together, but hollowed out of the solid timber like a canoe; this being covered, and let down into the grave, is surrounded with a coat of their mortar, called chinam, about eight or ten inches thick, which in a short time becomes as hard as a stone. The relations of the deceased attend the funeral ceremony, with a considerable number of women that are hired to weep: It might reasonably be supposed that the hired appearance of sorrow could no more flatter the living than benefit the dead, yet the appearance of sorrow is known to be hired among people much more reflective and enlightened than the Chinese. In Batavia, the law requires that every man should be buried according to his rank, which is in no case dispensed with; so that if the deceased has not left sufficient to pay his debts, an officer takes an inventory of what was in his possession when he died, and out of the produce buries him in the manner prescribed, leaving only the overplus to his creditors. Thus in many instances are the living sacrificed to the dead, and money that should discharge a debt, or feed an orphan, lavished in idle processions, or materials that are deposited in the earth to rot.[158]
[Footnote 158: Their veneration for the dead is certainly excessive, and by no means in unison with the rest of their character, which seems to be made up of the grossest selfishness, avarice, and apathy. They often visit the graves of their friends, strew flowers around them, and when they leave them, deposit presents and sundry articles of provisions, which, of course, are soon removed, though not by the dead. In this, respect, then, it is very obvious that their mourning may not be quite useless to the living.--E.]
Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this country is the slaves; for by slaves the Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians, however different in their rank or situation, are constantly attended: They are purchased from Sumatra, Malacca, and almost all the eastern islands. The natives of Java, very few of whom, as I have before observed, live in the neighbourhood of Batavia, have an exemption from slavery under the sanction of very severe penal laws, which I believe are seldom violated. The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds sterling; but girls, if they have beauty, sometimes fetch a hundred. They are a very lazy set of people; but as they will do but little work, they are content with a little victuals, subsisting altogether upon boiled rice, and a small quantity of the cheapest fish. As they are natives of different countries, they differ from each other extremely, both in person and disposition. The African negroes, called here Papua, are the worst, and consequently may be purchased for the least money: They are all thieves, and all incorrigible. Next to these are the Bougis and Macassars, both from the island of Celebes: These are lazy in the highest degree, and though not so much addicted to theft as the negroes, have a cruel and vindictive spirit, which renders them extremely dangerous, especially as, to gratify their resentment, they will make no scruple of sacrificing life. The best slaves, and consequently the dearest, are procured from the island of Bali: The most beautiful women from Nias, a small island on the coast of Sumatra; but they are of a tender and delicate constitution, and soon fall a sacrifice to the unwholesome air of Batavia.[159] Besides these, there are Malays, and slaves of several other denominations, whose particular characteristics I do not remember.
[Footnote 159: Other causes operate to the early extinction of these unfortunate females,--the lusts of their masters, and the cruel jealousy, ingenious and discriminating in torture, of their mistresses. Stavorinus well explains what is here meant. Speaking of the ladies of Batavia, he writes to this effect. In common with most women in India, they have an extreme jealousy of their husbands and female slaves. If they observe the least familiarity between them, they set no bounds to their revenge against the poor creatures, who, in general, have no alternative but that of gratifying their masters, or experiencing very harsh usage from them. On such discovery, their mistresses punish them in different ways, whipping them with ropes; or beating them with canes, till they fall down exhausted. One of the modes of tormenting them, is to pinch them with their toes in a certain tender part, against which their vengeance is chiefly directed; for this purpose, these wretched girls are made to sit before them in a peculiar position, and so exquisite is their suffering, that they often faint away. Indeed, the refinements in cruelty practised on them almost exceed belief.--E.]
These slaves are wholly in the power of their masters, with respect to any punishment that does not take away life; but if a slave dies in consequence of punishment, though his death should not appear to have been intended, the master is called to a severe account, and he is generally condemned to suffer capitally. For this reason the master seldom inflicts punishment upon the slave himself, but applies to an officer called a Marineu, one of whom is stationed in every district. The duty of the Marineu is to quell riots, and take offenders into custody; but more particularly to apprehend runaway slaves, and punish them for such crimes as the master, supported by proper evidence, lays to their charge: The punishment, however, is not inflicted by the Marineu in person, but by slaves who are bred up to the business. Men are punished publicly, before the door of their master's house; but women within it. The punishment is, by stripes, the number being proportioned to the offence; and they are given with rods made of rattans, which are split into slender twigs for the purpose, and fetch blood at every stroke. A common punishment costs the master a rix-dollar, and a severe one a ducatoon, about six shillings and eight-pence. The master is also obliged to allow the slave three dubbelcheys, equal to about seven-pence half-penny a-week, as an encouragement, and to prevent his being under temptations to steal, too strong to be resisted.
Concerning the government of this place I can say but little. We observed, however, a remarkable subordination among the people. Every man who is able to keep house has a certain specific rank, acquired by the length of his services to the Company: The different ranks which are thus acquired are distinguished by the ornaments of the coaches and the dresses of the coachmen: Some are obliged to ride in plain coaches, some are allowed to paint them in different manners and degrees, and some to gild them. The coachman also appears in clothes that are quite plain, or more or less adorned with lace.[160]
[Footnote 160: The distinctions of rank, and all the punctilios of the respective ceremonies and homage, are attended to at Batavia with the most religious exactness. Stavorinus specifies many instances, which, to some readers, it might be amusing enough to transcribe. But in fact, and to be honest, the writer has neither time, inclination, nor patience to interfere with such mummeries, or investigate the claims to precedency and peculiarly modified respect set up by Dutch merchants, and their still more consequential spouses. He has not the smallest pretensions to the office of master of the ceremonies for any society whatever.--E.]
The officer who presides here has the title of Governor General of the Indies, and the Dutch governors of all the other settlements are subordinate to him, and obliged to repair to Batavia that he may pass their accounts. If they appear to have been criminal, or even negligent, he punishes them by delay, and detains them during pleasure, sometimes one year, sometimes two years, and sometimes three; for they cannot quit the place till he gives them a dismission. Next to the governor are the members of the council, called here Edele Heeren, and by the corruption of the English, Idoleers. These Idoleers take upon them so much state, that whoever meets them in a carriage is expected to rise up and bow, then to drive on one side of the road, and there stop till they are past: The same homage is required also to their wives, and even their children; and it is commonly paid them by the inhabitants. But some of our captains have thought so slavish a mark of respect beneath the dignity which they derive from the service of his Britannic majesty, and have refused to pay it; yet, if they were in a hired carriage, nothing could deter the coachman from honouring the Dutch grandee at their expence, but the most peremptory menace of immediate death.[161]
[Footnote 161: The reader will remember what Captain Carteret says on this subject, in the account given of his voyage.--E.]