Many small rivers pervade the town, which also has an excellent road for shipping; so that if the people were of any reasonable capacity, it could easily be made a goodly city.  It is entirely surrounded by a brick-wall, built in a very warlike manner, with flankers and towers, scouring in all directions; and I have been told by some that it was first built by the Chinese.  In many places this wall has fallen to ruin.  At one end of the city is the Chinese town, being divided from that of the Javanese by a narrow river, which, after crossing the end of the Chinese town, runs past the king’s palace, and then through the middle of the great town, where the tide ebbs and flows, so that at high water galleys and junks of heavy burden can go into the middle of the city.  The Chinese town is mostly built of brick, every house being square and flat-roofed, formed of small timbers, split canes, and boards, on which are laid bricks and sand to defend them from fire.  Over these brick warehouses a shed is placed, constructed of large canes, and thatched; some being of small timber, but mostly of canes.  Of late years, since we came here, many wealthy persons have built their houses fire-proof all the way to the top:  but, on our first coming, there were none other in that manner except the house of the Sabander, and those of the rich Chinese merchants:  yet even these, by means of their windows, and the sheds around them, have been consumed by fire.  In this town stand the houses of the English and Dutch, built in the same manner with the others; but of late the Dutch have built one of their houses to the top of brick, but with much trouble and expence, in hopes of securing themselves from fire.

The King of Bantam is an absolute sovereign, and since the deposition and death of the late Emperor of Damacke he is considered as the principal king of the whole island.  He uses martial law on any offender he is disposed to punish.  If the wife or wives of any private individual are guilty of adultery, upon good proof, both the woman and her paramour are put to death.  They may put their slaves to death for any small fault.  For every wife that a free Javan marries he must keep ten female slaves, though some keep forty such for each wife, and may have as many more as they please, but can only have three wives; yet may use all their female slaves as concubines.  The Javanese are exceedingly proud, yet very poor, as hardly one among them of a hundred will work.  The gentry among them are reduced to poverty by the number of their slaves, who eat faster than their pepper and rice grow.  The Chinese plant, dress, and gather all the pepper, and sow the rice, living as slaves under the Javanese proprietors; yet they absorb all the wealth of the land by their industry, from the indolent and idle Javanese.  All the Javanese are so proud that they will not endure an equal to sit an inch higher than themselves.  They are a most blood-thirsty race, yet seldom fight