confined to rice,
with some hens and fish, but not in great abundance. All the houses are
built of great canes, with a few small timbers, being very slight
structures; yet in many houses of the principal people there is much
good workmanship, with fine carvings and other embellishments. Some of
the chiefest have a square chamber built of brick, in a quite rude
manner, no better than a brick-kiln; the only use of which is to secure
their household stuff in time of fires, for they seldom or never lodge
or eat in them.

Many small rivers pervade the town, which also has an excellent road for
shipping; so that if the people were of any reasonable capacity, it
could easily be made a goodly city. It is entirely surrounded by a
brick-wall, built in a very warlike manner, with flankers and towers,
scouring in all directions; and I have been told by some that it was
first built by the Chinese. In many places this wall has fallen to ruin.
At one end of the city is the Chinese town, being divided from that of
the Javanese by a narrow river, which, after crossing the end of the
Chinese town, runs past the king's palace, and then through the middle
of the great town, where the tide ebbs and flows, so that at high water
galleys and junks of heavy burden can go into the middle of the city.
The Chinese town is mostly built of brick, every house being square and
flat-roofed, formed of small timbers, split canes, and boards, on which
are laid bricks and sand to defend them from fire. Over these brick
warehouses a shed is placed, constructed of large canes, and thatched;
some being of small timber, but mostly of canes. Of late years, since we
came here, many wealthy persons have built their houses fire-proof all
the way to the top: but, on our first coming, there were none other in
that manner except the house of the Sabander, and those of the rich
Chinese merchants: yet even these, by means of their windows, and the
sheds around them, have been consumed by fire. In this town stand the
houses of the English and Dutch, built in the same manner with the
others; but of late the Dutch have built one of their houses to the top
of brick, but with much trouble and expence, in hopes of securing
themselves from fire.

The King of Bantam is an absolute sovereign, and since the deposition
and death of the late Emperor of _Damacke_ he is considered as the
principal king of the whole island. He uses martial law on any offender
he is disposed to puni