ness 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 i