scruple of sacrificing life. The best slaves, and conse quently 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." Besides these, there are Malays, and slaves of several other denominations, whose particular characteristics I do not remember.

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 punish

ment

"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 be

lief.-E.

ment 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."

If

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. 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

12 The distinctions of rank, and all the punctilios of the respective ce remonies 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.

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."3

Justice is administered here by a body of lawyers, who have ranks of distinction among themselves. Concerning their proceedings in questions of property, I know nothing; but their decisions in criminal cases seem to be severe with respect to the natives, and lenient with respect to their own people, in a criminal degree. A Christian always is indulged with an opportunity of escaping before he is brought to a trial, whatever may have been his offence; and if he is brought to a trial and convicted, he is seldom punished with death; while the poor Indians, on the contrary, are hanged, and broken upon the wheel, and even impaled alive without mercy."

The

13 The reader will remember what Captain Carteret says on this subject, in the account given of his voyage.-E.

14 Impalement, as practised at Batavia, is one of the most shocking pu nishments ever invented. An iron spike, about six feet long, is forcibly passed between the back-bone and the skin from the lower part of the body, where a cross cut is made for its insertion, till it come out betwixt the shoulders and neck, the executioner guiding the point of it so that none of the vitals or large blood vessels may be wounded. The under end of the spike is afterwards made fast to a wooden post, which is then stuck into the ground, so that the miserable wretch is raised aloft, where he is supported partly by the iron spike in his skin, and partly by a little bench, projecting about ten feet from the ground. He may remain alive in this most cruel situation for several days, during which period he is tor tured besides with hunger and thirst, for no victuals, of any kind, are allowed him; and numerous insects also continually torment him in the fervent heat of the sun. His misery is the greater and longer, as the weather is clear and dry. Should a shower of rain fall, he is soon relieved from torment, as it is noticed that any water getting into the wounds speedily induces gangrene and death. Stavorinus saw an execution of this sort, and relates some very affecting particulars. The fortitude of the wretched sufferer was astonishing. He uttered no complaint, unless when the spike was fastened to the post, when the agitation occasioned by hammering, &c. appeared to give him intolerable pain, so that he roared out. He did so again when the post was lifted up and put into the ground. In this dreadful situation he continued till death ended his torment, which happened next day. This was owing to a light shower of rain, of about an hour's continuance, half an hour after which he breathed his last. He continually complained of thirst, which no one was allowed to relieve by a single drop of water.-E.

The Malays and Chinese have judicial officers of their own, under the denominations of captains and lieutenants, who determine in civil cases, subject to an appeal to the Dutch court.

The taxes paid by these people to the Company are very considerable; and that which is exacted of them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no means the least. They are paid monthly, and, to save the trouble and charge of colfecting them, a flag is hoisted upon the top of a house in the middle of the town when a payment is due, and the Chinese have experienced that it is their interest to repair thither with their money without delay.

The money current here consists of ducats, worth a hundred and thirty-two stivers; ducatoons, eighty stivers; imperial rix-dollars, sixty; rupees of Batavia, thirty; schellings, six; double cheys, two stivers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. Spanish dollars, when we were here, were at five shillings and five-pence; and we were told, that they were never lower than five shillings and fourpence, even at the Company's warehouse. For English guineas we could never get more than nineteen shillings upon an average; for though the Chinese would give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they would give no more than seventeen shillings for those that were much

worn.

It may perhaps be of some advantage to strangers to be told that there are two kinds of coin here, of the same denomination, milled and unmilled, and that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon is worth eighty stivers; but an unmilled ducatoon is worth no more than seventytwo. All accounts are kept in rix-dollars and stivers, which, here at least, are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. The rix-dollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about four shillings and six-pence English currency.'s

SECTION

15 The reader need scarcely be informed, that the statements given in the text as to the respective value of the coin, are fitted to the circum stances of the period at which the account of the voyage was published. It was thought unnecessary to correct them to the present times in this place.-E.

SECTION XL.

The Passage from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope. Some Account of Prince's Island and its Inhabitants. Our Arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. Some Remarks on the Run from Java Head to that Place, and to Saint Helena. The Return of the Ship to England.

ON Thursday the 27th of December, at six o'clock in the morning, we weighed again and stood out to sea. After much delay by contrary winds, we weathered Pulo Pare on the 29th, and stood in for the main: Soon after, we fetched a small island under the main, in the midway between Batavia and Bantam, called Maneater's Island. The next day, we weathered first Wapping Island, and then Pulo Babi. On the 31st, we stood over to the Sumatra shore; and on the morning of new-year's-day, 1771, we stood over for the Java shore.

We continued our course as the wind permitted us till three o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th, when we anchored under the south-east side of Prince's Island in eighteen fathom, in order to recruit our wood and water, and procure refreshments for the sick, many of whom were now become much worse than they were when we left Batavia. As soon as the ship was secured, I went ashore, accompa nied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, and we were met upon the beach by some Indians, who carried us immediately to a man, who, they said, was their king. After we had exchanged a few compliments with his majesty, we proceeded to business; but in settling the price of turtle we could not agree; This however did not discourage us, as we made no doubt but that we should buy them at our own price in the morning. As soon as we parted, the Indians dispersed, and we proceeded along the shore in search of a watering-place. In this we were more successful; we found

VOL. XIII.

2 G

The original contains some remarks on the language of Prince's Island, and a comparative view of it with the Malay and Javanese. These have been omitted, because another opportunity will present of treating the subject more fully than could be done here, without anticipating information which belongs to another place. Much additional light has been thrown on this interesting topic since the date of this navigation.-E.