The third person in the government is the Major-general, who has the command of all the forces under the governor-general.  The number of regular troops in the service of the Company throughout the Indies may be about 12,000 men, exclusive of the militia, which amount to about 100,000 more, and are well disciplined, and always called out in time of danger.  The entire military and naval strength of the Company by land and sea is about 25,000 men, including officers, soldiers, and sailors.  For the support of its commerce, the Company keeps in constant employment about 180 ships, of from 30 to 60 pieces of cannon, and in cases of emergency are able at any time to fit out forty of the largest size.

The ecclesiastical government at Batavia, or consistory, consists of eleven persons; viz. the five ministers of the two Dutch churches in the city, and that in the citadel, besides the minister who resides in the island of Ourust, together with the three ministers of the Portuguese churches, and the two belonging to the Malay church.  These last five are all Dutchmen-born, though they preach in the Portuguese and Malay languages.  As it is deemed necessary that the state should be informed of all that passes among their clergy, the eleventh person is nominated by the government, whose especial business is to see that they do nothing contrary to the laws or to the regulations of the Company.  Besides these, the consistory also consists of eight elders and twenty deacons.  One principal branch of business confided to the consistory, is to provide ministers for the subordinate governments; where they are relieved after a certain term of years, and either return to Batavia or to Holland, to enjoy the fruits of their labours.  Our author relates that one of these ministers went home in the same ship with him, who had made such good use of his time, that he bought a noble fief on his return, and became a man of quality.  In the smaller places belonging to the Company, where there are no established ministers, an itinerant is sent once in three or four years, to marry, baptize, and dispense the communion; which is necessary, since the synods do not permit the propagation of any other except the reformed religion in the territories of the Company.

For a long time the Lutherans have solicited for permission to have a church in Batavia, but have constantly been refused, though certainly a just and reasonable demand, especially in a place where Mahomedans and Pagans are freely tolerated in the exercise of their religion, and where the Chinese are even permitted to worship the devil.  This ecclesiastical consistory has also dependent upon it all the schoolmasters, consolators of the sick, and catechists.  Of these last there are many in the service of the Company in their ships; their duty being to say prayers every day, and to instruct such as embrace the Christian religion; and as they are mostly natives, and speak several languages,