BATAVIA, a large city and sea-port on the north coast of the island of Java, and the capital of all the Dutch settlements in the East. It is situated on the river Jacatra, in a swampy plain, at the bottom of a bay, and has long been noted for the insalubrity of its atmosphere. This bay is formed by an indentation in the northern shore of Java; and it is protected from the swell of the sea by fifteen or sixteen small islands, interspersed in every direction across its mouth. It is of sufficient capacity to contain the whole navy of England, and is perfectly secure at all seasons, the water being seldom disturbed in any violent degree by the winds. The form of the city is an oblong square, 4200 feet in length from north to south, and 3000 feet in breadth. The streets are quite straight and regular, and cross each other at right angles. Each street is from 114 to 204 feet broad, and has a canal in the middle, cased with stone, with a low parapet on the two margins. At the distance of six feet is planted a row of evergreen trees, under the shade of which are erected little open pavilions of wood, surrounded with seats, on which the Dutch inhabitants, in the cool of the evening, take their favourite refreshment of smoking. Beyond the trees is a gravelled road from thirty to sixty feet wide, for carriages, horses, cattle, and slaves, and terminated on the opposite side by a row of evergreens. Batavia contains about twenty such streets, with canals in the middle, over which there are about thirty stone bridges. The river Jacatra, which has its rise in the Blue Mountains to the south, flows through the middle of the town, and encircles it by several branches and canals connected with the main stream. Numerous other streams, such as the Ankee and the Tangerang, &c., besides artificial canals, intersect the swampy plain of Batavia in all directions, and connect the town with the surrounding country.

According to Sir Stamford Raffles, in his account of Java, there are now scarcely any remains of the splendour and magnificence which formerly procured for this capital the proud title of the Queen of the East. “Streets,” he adds, “have been pulled down, canals half filled up, forts demolished, and palaces levelled with the dust.” The public buildings consist of a Lutheran and a Portuguese church, a Mahommedan mosque, a Chinese temple, the stadthouse, where the supreme court of justice and magistracy still assemble, the infirmary, the chamber of orphans, and other institutions of less consequence. The great church of Batavia, which was finished in 1760, at an expense of L.80,000, was taken down in consequence of its foundation having given way, by order of General Daendels, who was governor of Java after Holland was incorporated with France. The market is convenient and extensive, and is well supplied with provisions of all sorts. The fortifications by which the city was formerly surrounded, consisting of a wall defended by bastions, were all pulled down before Batavia was captured by the British in 1811. General Daendels directed the demolition of the ramparts, with a view of improving the health of the city by a freer circulation of air; and with the materials he built the new cantonment of Weltevreeden, about three miles inland, in a higher and more healthy situation. The castle of Batavia, which is on the north side of the town, next to the bay, is very spacious, and contains numerous buildings and extensive warehouses, constructed with prodigious labour and expense; but its situation is so unhealthy, that the troops were withdrawn to another place, and it was converted into a depot for naval and military stores and other articles. The town of Batavia, owing to its unhealthiness, has been deserted by all the most wealthy inhabitants, who now live in the environs, principally on two roads leading to Weltevreeden; the one east, the other west, through Molenvliet and Ryswick. These elegant roads, shaded with rows of trees, and having on each side sumptuous houses surrounded with fine gardens and plantations, form the fashionable resort at Batavia. Here are situated some of the public buildings of the town, namely, the grand assembly-room, used by government on great occasions; also a large building, which contains the treasury and all the other public offices. The environs are adorned with the country residences of the opulent merchants, which extend east and west, and on the south are scattered over a distance of between forty and fifty miles inland.

Batavia, being a great trading city, is resorted to by many different nations in the East; and its population consists of a mixture of all these, as well as of Europeans. The inhabitants may be divided into the following classes; namely, the Dutch residents, who form buta small class, and can hardly be termed European, so completely are they intermixed with Portuguese and Malay colonists; the different Indian nations, originally slaves; the Moors and Arabs, an active and intelligent race, principally engaged in navigation; the Javanese, who are cultivators; the natives of Bali, of Celebes, Borneo, Macassar, Amboyna, and Madura. The Malays are numerous; they are chiefly boatmen and navigators, and profess the Mahommedan faith. The Chinese form the most numerous class in Batavia. They are here, as everywhere else, ingenious, industrious, and mercantile in their habits. Their sole object is to make money, in which they are indefatigable. They have many of them acquired large capitals; and their industry embraces the whole system of commerce, from the greatest wholesale speculations to the most minute transactions in the retail trade. In their hands are all the manufactories, distilleries, potteries, &c.; they have large coffee and sugar plantations, and gardens well stocked with all sorts of vegetables; and they are the principal traders, smiths, carpenters, stone-masons, shoemakers, shopkeepers, butchers, &c. in the country. But though they form so useful a class in Batavia, they have always been severely oppressed by the tyrannical and arbitrary exactions of the Dutch government. All their religious festivals, every public ceremony and popular amusement, as well as every branch of industry, were subjected to taxation. They were obliged to pay for a license to wear their hair in a long plaited tail, according to the custom ol their country, as well as for permission to bring their greens to market, and to sell their produce and manufactures in the streets. A better system was introduced under the British administration of Sir Stamford Raffles; but the island has since been restored to the Dutch, who have not abandoned their former narrow and severe policy. The following is an estimate of the population made by Barrow in 1792, from a register of the dwelling-houses m the city.
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The environs of Batavia he estimates to contain 218,777. Batavia is perhaps one of the most unhealthy spots in the whole earth: and this is not owing altogether to the climate, which is not so hot as in other tropical countries; the thermometer varying in the middle of the day from 84° to 86°, though it sometimes rises to 96°, and sinking during the night to 76°, and the breeze from the sea regularly setting in as the day advances. It is occasioned, lsř, by the situation of the town, in a marshy plain, the exhalations from which settle over it in calm weather, and descend with the dews at night, or are circulated through it both by the sea and the land breeze; 2dly, by the stagnant water in the canals or ditches, which intersect the city in all directions. These canals are a receptacle for filth of every description, and having no current to carry it off, the action of a tropical sun on such a mass of putrefying matter engenders the most pestilential vapours, the sure source of disease. The other causes are the close plantations of trees, that prevent a free circulation of air; the stagnation of the rivers from the bars of mud or sand which obstruct their passage into the sea; the bad water used by the inhabitants; the narrowness of their houses J the extreme filthiness of their habits; and the luxury and intemperance of the richer classes. The most common and the most fatal maladies are dysenteries, and putrid and inflammatory fevers, which frequently prove fatal in the course of a few days, and sometimes in a few hours. At Weltevreeden, not more than three miles distant, diseases are not more frequent than in the healthiest parts of India.

Batavia is a great commercial depot, and is resorted to by vessels from all the Asiatic islands, as well as from China, the East Indies, and Europe. It’s trade was indeed heavily oppressed by the restrictions of the Dutch East India Company, who claimed the monopoly or preemption of almost all the staple articles of commerce; and who further restricted by their regulations the freedom of navigation. A greater latitude was allowed under the French regulations of General Daendels, though it was still sufficiently severe; and when Batavia was captured by the British in 1811, the trade was set free from the: la ckles which had been imposed on it, and it accordingly began to flourish. In 1812 the quantity of shipping that cleared out from Batavia amounted to 52,375 tons; m 1813 it had increased to 64,306 tons; and in 1814 to 72,718 tons.

The exports from Batavia to the other islands of the archipelago, and to the ports in the Malayan peninsula, are rice, salt, oil, tobacco, teak timber and planks, Java cloths, brass ware, &c., and European, Indian, and Chi- , nese goods. The produce of the eastern islands is also collected at its ports for re-exportation to India, China, and Europe; namely, gold-dust, diamonds, camphor, benjamin, and other drugs; edible bird-nests, biche dc mer, rattans, bees’ wax, tortoise-shell, and dyeing woods from Borneo and Sumatra; tin from Banca; spices from the Moluccas; fine cloths from Celebes and Bali; and pepper from Borneo. From Bengal are imported opium, drugs, and cloths; from China, teas, raw silk, silk piece-goods, varnished umbrellas, coarse China ware, nankeen, paper, and innumerable smaller articles for the Chinese settlers. Of late, however, the Chinese have been superseded by the introduction of British manufactures. A trade is also carried on with Japan, to which a ship is annually sent laden with cloths, spices, elephants’ teeth, wood, tin, tortoise-shell, &c.; and the return is chiefly made in fine copper, China ware, lackered ware, and silk goods.

Batavia owes its origin to the Dutch general John Pieterson Coen, who, in 1619, took the town of Jacatra by assault, destroyed it, and founded in its stead the present city, which soon acquired a flourishing trade, and increased in extent and importance. The Dutch enjoyed unmolested possession of this place until the year 1811, when the states of Holland having been incorporated with France, a British armament was sent against the Dutch settlements in Java, and to this force the city of Batavia surrendered on the 8th of August. Batavia was restored to the Dutch by the treaty of 1814. Long. 106. 51. E. Lat. 6. 10. S.

See Stavorinus’s Voyages to the East Indies; Barrow’s Voyage to Cochin China; Sir George Staunton’s Embassy to China; Thorn’s Memoir of the Conquest of Java; Sir Stamford Raffles’s History of Java. (f.)