No European can do without a carriage, the paint of which, and his other equipage, denote the rank of the owner; to whom the necessary respect must be paid by people of an inferior rank; for a noncompliance with this custom, a fine is levied by the Fiscal.  The town is but indifferently defended, as the fortifications are irregular and extensive, and the walls (which are painted) are very low:  it is surrounded with a deep and wide canal, but the best defence of this settlement is its extreme unhealthiness.  The citadel, or castle, stands on the right of the city:  in it are deposited a vast quantity of cannon and other munitions of war:  the governor-general, and the rest of the company’s servants, have apartments in it, and here the governor and council meet twice a week, to transact public business.

The police of this city is strictly attended to, and is calculated to preserve great order and regularity; but it is attended with some mortifying and degrading circumstances, which Europeans find great difficulty and repugnance in complying with; however, the inhabitants and the company’s servants must observe its rules with a scrupulous attention, not only to avoid paying the fines, but also to avoid the resentment of those who have it entirely in their power to advance or retard their promotion.

The suburbs are inhabited by the Chinese and Portuguese:  the houses of the former are very numerous, but they are low and dirty.  The number of Chinese resident in and about Batavia in 1788, was 200,000:  it is these people who are the support of this important settlement; and if they were obliged to abandon it by any impolitic measure, it would soon lose its splendor.  The Chinese carry on every trade and occupation; the better sort are very rich, but they are subject to great exactions from the company, or their servants.  They are suffered to farm the duties of exportation and importation, for which they pay the company 12,000 rix-dollars in silver money per month.  All goods belonging to the company are exempt from duties, but those of every other person pay eight per cent.

About three quarters of a mile from the city is the Chinese burying-ground, consisting of fifteen or twenty acres:  for the annual rent of this ground they pay 10,000 rix-dollars, and, at the end of every ten years, they repurchase it for a very great sum, which in general is regulated by the governor and council.  A person of consequence assured me, that the Chinese pay a tax of 20,000 rix-dollars a year, for the privilege of wearing their hair queued; and, besides what I have already mentioned, these industrious people are subject to many more exactions.

The Chinese are subject to a set of officers (appointed by the governor and council) who are Chinese, and are previously chosen by that people:  they are called captains and lieutenants, and hear all complaints, and their sentence is decisive; but cases of property, above a certain sum, and all felonies, are taken cognizance of by the fiscal and court of justices.  The police established among them is so very good, that, except in cases of property, the fiscal or justices are seldom troubled with a Chinese criminal.  They trade to every part of India, and the number of large junks which arrive annually from China, is between thirty and forty.