fying 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.

It is remarkable that the Chinese are the only strangers which
are not affected by the unhealthi