Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this country is the slaves; for by slaves the Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians, however different in their rank or situation, are constantly attended:  They are purchased from Sumatra, Malacca, and almost all the eastern islands.  The natives of Java, very few of whom, as I have before observed, live in the neighbourhood of Batavia, have an exemption from slavery under the sanction of very severe penal laws, which I believe are seldom violated.  The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds sterling; but girls, if they have beauty, sometimes fetch a hundred.  They are a very lazy set of people; but as they will do but little work, they are content with a little victuals, subsisting altogether upon boiled rice, and a small quantity of the cheapest fish.  As they are natives of different countries, they differ from each other extremely, both in person and disposition.  The African negroes, called here Papua, are the worst, and consequently may be purchased for the least money:  They are all thieves, and all incorrigible.  Next to these are the Bougis and Macassars, both from the island of Celebes:  These are lazy in the highest degree, and though not so much addicted to theft as the negroes, have a cruel and vindictive spirit, which renders them extremely dangerous, especially as, to gratify their resentment, they will make no scruple of sacrificing life.  The best slaves, and consequently 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.[159] Besides these, there are Malays, and slaves of several other denominations, whose particular characteristics I do not remember.

[Footnote 159:  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 belief.—­E.]