[Footnote 138:  Mr Barrow does not give a more favourable report.  According to him, no less than three out of five of the new settlers at this place die in the first year of their residence; and he learned from the registers of the military hospital, that though the establishment of troops never exceeded 1500 men, and sometimes was not half this number, yet during sixty-two years the annual deaths amounted to 1258!  Of those Europeans who have in some degree got accustomed to the place, he says that rather more than ten in a hundred die yearly; and that scarcely any live beyond the middle stage of life.  The natives, as might be expected, suffer less, but even they are exposed to frequent visits of the old enemy.  In Mr B.’s opinion, the climate is not so injurious as the circumstances of the situation, and the pernicious, though convenient, prevalency of canals, aided, he admits, by the bad habits of the people.—­E.]

But if it is difficult to attack Batavia by land, it is utterly impossible to attack it by sea:  For the water is so shallow, that it will scarcely admit a long-boat to come within cannon-shot of the walls, except in a narrow channel, called the river, that is walled on both sides by strong piers, and runs about half a mile into the harbour.  At the other end, it terminates under the fire of the strongest part of the castle; and here its communication with the canals that intersect the town is cut off by a large wooden boom, which is shut every night at six o’clock, and upon no pretence opened till the next morning.[139] The harbour of Batavia is accounted the finest in India, and, to all appearance, with good reason; it is large enough to contain any number of ships, and the ground is so good that one anchor will hold till the cable decays:  It never admits any sea that is troublesome, and its only inconvenience is the shoal water between the road and the river.  When the sea-breeze blows fresh, it makes a cockling sea that is dangerous to boats:  Our long-boat once struck two or three times as she was attempting to come out, and regained the river’s mouth with some difficulty.  A Dutch boat, laden with sails and rigging for one of the Indiamen, was entirely lost.

[Footnote 139:  The reader need not be reminded of the facility with which Batavia was lately taken by our gallant countrymen.  The accounts of that successful expedition may be advantageously compared with what is here given.  This, however, they must do who are interested in the subject.  The introduction of it here would be very irrelevant—­E.]

Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many islands, which the Dutch have taken possession of, and apply to different uses.[140] To one of them, called Edam, they transport all Europeans who have been guilty of crimes that are not worthy of death:  Some are sentenced to remain there ninety-nine years, some forty, some twenty, some less, down to five, in proportion to their offence; and during their banishment, they