handsome, and laid out in very regular streets, having canals running
through most of them, with trees planted on each side, so that Batavia
may justly be called a fine city: But the sight is the only sense that
is gratified here, for the canals smell very offensively when the tide
is low, and breed vast swarms of muskitoes, which are more troublesome
here than in any place I was ever in.

A great part of the inhabitants of Batavia are Chinese, who are
remarkable for wearing there their ancient dress, having their hair
rolled up in such a manner that there is little difference in that
respect between the men and women. Ever since the revolution in China,
which brought that country under the Tartar yoke, the Tartarian
dress has been imposed upon the whole kingdom, which was not
effected without great bloodshed: For many of the Chinese were
so superstitiously attached to their ancient modes, that they
unaccountably chose rather to lose their lives than their hair; as the
Tartar fashion is to shave the head, except a long lock on the crown,
which they plait in the same manner we do. The Dutch, taking advantage
of this superstitious attachment of the Chinese to their hair, exact
from all the men who live under their protection, a poll-tax of a
dollar a month for the liberty of wearing their hair, which produces a
very considerable revenue.

Hearing at Batavia that there were several pirates in these seas,
Captain Hill joined the Dutch homeward-bound fleet in Bantam bay, and
the Dutch commodore promised to assist Captain Hill in wooding and
watering at _Mew_ island, the water at Batavia being very bad. We fell
in with the Francis in the Straits of Sunda, though we imagined that
ship had been far a-head. The Dutch made this a pretence for leaving
us before we got to Mew island, and Captain Newsham also deserted