It is remarkable that the Chinese are the only strangers which are not affected by the unhealthiness of this place:  indeed, much may be said in favour of their temperance and regular manner of living, although one would imagine that the close manner in which a number of them live together could not fail to produce diseases, but it certainly does not.

The roads, or rather handsome avenues, which lead from the different gates of the city, are lined with buildings, where nature and art have been exhausted to render them elegant and commodious beyond description:  each house has a large garden, in which a degree of elegance and convenience is observable, equal to what there is in the magnificent piles which they surround.  These houses are inhabited by the principal people of Batavia, where they pass most of their time, and those amongst them who have no inducement to return to Europe, and who enjoy their health, may spend their days very comfortably here.

The government of this island, and indeed of all the Dutch possessions in India, is lodged in the governor-general, who is assisted by a number of counsellors, called “counsellors of India,” or “-edele heerens:-” twelve of these counsellors must reside at Batavia, but the number is not fixed; at this time, there is one who governs at each of the following places, viz.  Cochin, Ceylon, Macasser, and at the Emperor’s court at -Jamarre_, or Java, where, I am told, 400 European cavalry are kept, to do honour to the emperor.

The council meet every Tuesday and Friday in the council-room at the castle; the general presides, but, if prevented by ill health or any other circumstance, the director-general supplies his place, who, as well as the edele heerens, are received into the castle, and conducted to the council-room with great pomp and ceremony.  Every thing relating to the civil and military government, commerce, and every other concern of the company, is transacted by this council, but the governor-general has a plenary power to put into execution any measure he may judge necessary for the good of the company.

The present governor-general, whose name is William Arnold Alting, has been resident upwards of thirty years at Batavia, eleven of which he has been governor-general:  I am told his private character is very amiable and respectable, but how any man possessed of common feelings, can suffer such humiliations from those around him, I cannot conceive.  When any person approaches the general to speak to him, his behaviour and address must be the most abject imaginable, and the respect and profound submission which every servant of the company, and every inhabitant must necessarily assume on these occasions, are little short of the adoration paid to the Divinity:  this homage is carried to so great a height, that when the general enters the church, although the congregation may be at prayers, yet every person is obliged to get up and face him until he is seated in his pew, bowing as he passes.