fire of the strongest part of the
castle; and here its communication with the canals that intersect the
town is cut off by a large wooden boom, which is shut every night at six
o'clock, and upon no pretence opened till the next morning.[139] The
harbour of Batavia is accounted the finest in India, and, to all
appearance, with good reason; it is large enough to contain any number
of ships, and the ground is so good that one anchor will hold till the
cable decays: It never admits any sea that is troublesome, and its only
inconvenience is the shoal water between the road and the river. When
the sea-breeze blows fresh, it makes a cockling sea that is dangerous to
boats: Our long-boat once struck two or three times as she was
attempting to come out, and regained the river's mouth with some
difficulty. A Dutch boat, laden with sails and rigging for one of the
Indiamen, was entirely lost.

[Footnote 139: The reader need not be reminded of the facility with
which Batavia was lately taken by our gallant countrymen. The accounts
of that successful expedition may be advantageously compared with what
is here given. This, however, they must do who are interested in the
subject. The introduction of it here would be very irrelevant--E.]

Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many islands, which the Dutch
have taken possession of, and apply to different uses.[140] To one of
them, called Edam, they transport all Europeans who have been guilty of
crimes that are not worthy of death: Some are sentenced to remain there
ninety-nine years, some forty, some twenty, some less, down to five, in
proportion to their offence; and during their banishment, they are
employed as slaves in making ropes, and other drudgery.[141] In another
island, called Purmerent, they have an hospital, where people are said
to recover much faster than at Batavia.[142] In a third, called Kuyper,
they have warehouses belonging to the Company, chiefly for rice, and
other merchandise of small value; and here the foreign ships, that are
to be laid down at Onrnst, another of these islands, which with Kuyper
has been mentioned before, discharge their cargoes at wharfs which are
very convenient for the purpose.[143] Here the guns, sails, and other
stores of the Falmouth, a man-of-war which was condemned at this place
when she was returning from Manilla, were deposited, and the ship
herself remained in the harbour, with only the warrant officers on
board, for many years. Re