are employed as slaves in making ropes, and other drudgery.[141] In another island, called Purmerent, they have an hospital, where people are said to recover much faster than at Batavia.[142] In a third, called Kuyper, they have warehouses belonging to the Company, chiefly for rice, and other merchandise of small value; and here the foreign ships, that are to be laid down at Onrnst, another of these islands, which with Kuyper has been mentioned before, discharge their cargoes at wharfs which are very convenient for the purpose.[143] Here the guns, sails, and other stores of the Falmouth, a man-of-war which was condemned at this place when she was returning from Manilla, were deposited, and the ship herself remained in the harbour, with only the warrant officers on board, for many years.  Remittances were regularly made them from home; but no notice was ever taken of the many memorials they sent, desiring to be recalled.  Happily for them, the Dutch thought fit, about six months before our arrival, to sell the vessel and all her stores, by public auction, and send the officers home in their own ships.  At Onrust, they repair all their own shipping, and keep a large quantity of naval stores.

[Footnote 140:  There are fifteen islands in all, but only four of them are used by the Company; and of these, Onrust is the chief.  This is about three leagues north-west from the city, and is fortified, as commanding the channel.  It is very small, but there are several warehouses and other buildings on it.—­E.]

[Footnote 141:  Edam is three leagues north-north-east from the city.  It abounds in wood, and is remarkable for a large tree of the fig kind, which is an object of high veneration among the superstitious Javanese.—­E.]

[Footnote 142:  Purmerent is to the eastward of Onrust, and is half as large again as that island.  It is planted with trees.  The hospital on it is maintained by the voluntary alms of both the natives and Europeans.—­E.]

[Footnote 143:  Kuyper, or Cooper’s Isle, is considerably less than Onrust, and lies very near it.  Several large tamarind trees yield it an agreeable shade.  It has two pier-heads at its south side, where ships take in and discharge their freight.—­E.]

The country round Batavia is for some miles a continued range of country houses and gardens.  Many of the gardens are very large, and by some strange fatality, all are planted with trees almost as thick as they can stand; so that the country derives no advantage from its being cleared of the wood that originally covered it, except the fruit of that which has been planted in its room.  These impenetrable forests stand in a dead flat, which extends some miles beyond them, and is intersected in many directions by rivers, and more still by canals, which are navigable for small vessels.  Nor is this the worst, for the fence of every field and garden is a ditch; and interspersed among the cultivated ground there are many filthy fens, bogs, and morasses, as well fresh as salt.