The great market-place on the east side of the river was set fire to on the 4th July, in which fire several Chinese who were indebted to us lost their all, so that we sustained some loss.  Thomas Dobson, one of the factors appointed for Banda, died on the 17th July.  The town was fired again on the east side of the river on the 27th.  The 5th, several Dutch captains came to our house, saying that the regent had asked if they would take our parts in case he did us any violence; when they told him we were their neighbours, and they would not see us wronged.  I went immediately to the regent, to whom I gave a small present, and thanked him for the men he had lent us to help our building; but I could see by his countenance that he was angry.  The same day the admiral of Bantam sent his son to the regent to enquire why he used threats against us, which he denied; and, sending for me next morning, he asked me who had said he meant to harm us.  Saying it was the Dutch captains, he answered if any Javan or Chinese had said so, he would have sent for them and cut their throats before my eyes.  He then blamed me for not coming to him when we had any suits, and going always to the sabander and admiral; upon which, I said that he was only newly appointed, and we were not yet acquainted with him, but should apply to him in future.

About this time an affray broke out between the Hollanders and the Chinese, in which some on both sides were slain and wounded, owing to the disorderly and drunken behaviour of the lower Dutchmen when on shore.  They got the worst on this occasion, not indeed from the Chinese themselves, but from some Javan slaves of turn-coat Chinese, who would steal unawares on the Hollanders of an evening, and stab them in a cowardly manner.  One day, when the Hollanders were very importunate about one of their men who had been assassinated, the regent asked, whether they brought a law along with them into a foreign country, or whether they were governed by the laws of the country in which they resided?  They answered, that they were governed by their own laws when on ship board, and by those of the country when on shore.  Then said the regent, “I will tell you what are the laws of this country in regard to murder.  If one kill a slave, he must pay 20 ryals of eight, if a freeman 50, and if a gentleman 100.”  This was all the redress they had for the slaughter of their man.

About the 5th September there came a junk full of men from the island of Lampon in the straits of Sunda, who are great enemies to the Javans, and yet so very like them as not to be distinguishable.  These men, having their junk in a creek near Bantam, and being in all points like the Javans, used to come boldly into the town and into the houses, even at noonday, and cut off the people’s heads, so that for near a month we had little rest for the grievous lamentations of the towns people.  After a time, many of them becoming known, were taken and put to death.  They were men of comely stature, and the reason of their strange procedure was, that their king rewarded them with a female slave for every head they brought him, so that they would often dig up newly-buried persons at Bantam and cut off their heads, to impose upon their savage king.