a large island of the East Indies, lying between 105° and 116° E. Long., and from 6° to 8° S. Lat. extending in length 700 miles, and in breadth about 100. It is situated to the south of Borneo, and south-east: south-east from the peninsula of Malacca, having Sumatra lying before it, from which it is separated by a narrow passage, now so famous in the world by the name of the Straits of Sunda. The country is mountainous and woody in the middle; but a flat coast, full of bogs and marshes, renders the air unhealthy. It produces pepper, indigo, sugar, tobacco, rice, coffee, cocoa-nuts, plantains, cardamoms, and other tropical fruits. Gold also, but in no great quantities, hath been found in it. It is diversified by many mountains, woods, and rivers; in all which nature has very bountifully bestowed her treasure. Many of the mountains are so high as to be seen at the distance of a number of leagues. That which is called the Blue Mountain is by far the highest of them all, and seen the farthest off at sea. They have frequent and very terrible earthquakes in this island, which shake the city of Batavia and places adjacent, to such a degree, that the fall of the houses is expected every moment. The waters in the road are excessively agitated, inasmuch that their motion resembles that of a boiling pot; and in some places the earth opens, which affords a strange and terrible spectacle. The inhabitants are of opinion, that these earthquakes proceed from the mountain Parang, which is full of sulphur, saltpetre, and bitumen. The fruits and plants of this island are in their several kinds excellent, and almost out of number. There are abundance of forests scattered over it, in which are all kinds of wild beasts, such as buffaloes, tigers, rhinoceroses, and wild horses, with an infinite variety of serpents, some of them of an enormous size. Crocodiles are prodigiously large in Java, and are found chiefly about the mouths of rivers; for, being amphibious animals, they delight mostly in marshes and savannahs. This creature, like the tortoise, lays its eggs in the hot sands, without taking any further care of them; the sun hatches them at the proper season, when the young run instantly into the water. There is, in short, no kind of animal wanting here; fowls they have of all sorts, and exquisitely good, especially peacocks, partridges, pheasants, wood-pigeons; and, for curiosity, they have the Indian bat, which differs little in form from ours; but its wings, when extended, measure a full yard, and the body of it is of the size of a rat. They have fish in great plenty, and very good; so that for the value of three-pence there may be enough bought to dine six or seven men. They have likewise a multitude of tortoises, the flesh of which is very little inferior to veal, and there are many who think it better.

It is said, that there are in the island upwards of 40 great towns, which, from the number of their inhabitants, would, in any other part of the world, merit the name of cities; and more than 4500 villages, besides hamlets, and straggling houses, lying very near each other upon the sea coast, and in the neighbourhood of great towns; hence, upon a fair and moderate computation, there are within the bounds of the whole island, taking in persons of both sexes, and of all ranks and ages, more than thirty millions of souls; so that it is thrice as populous as France, which, though twice as big, is not computed to have more than twenty millions of inhabitants.

There are a great many princes in the island, of which the most considerable are, the emperor of Mataram who resides at Katafura, and the kings of Bantam and Japara. Upon the first of these many of the petty princes are dependent; but the Dutch are absolute masters of the greatest part of the island, particularly of the north coast, though there are some of the princes beyond the mountains, on the south coast, who still maintain their independency. The natives of the country, who are established in the neighbourhood of Batavia, and for a tract of about 40 leagues along the mountains of the country of Bantam, are immediately subject to the governor-general. The company send droffards, or commissaries, among them, who administer justice and take care of the public revenues.

The city of Batavia is the capital not only of this island but of all the Dutch dominions in India. It is an exceeding fine city, situated in the latitude of 6° south, at the mouth of the river Jucatra, and in the bottom of a large commodious bay, which may be considered not only as one of the safest harbours in India, but in the world. The city is surrounded by a rampart 21 feet thick, covered on the outside with stone and fortified with 22 bastions. This rampart is environed by a ditch 45 yards over, and full of water, especially when the tides are high, in the spring. The avenues to the town are defended by several forts, each of which is well furnished with excellent brass cannon; no person is suffered to go beyond these forts without a passport. The river Jucatra passes through the midst of the town, and forms 15 canals of running water, all faced with free-stone, and adorned with trees that are ever green; over these canals are 56 bridges, besides those which lie without the town. The streets are all perfectly straight, and each, generally speaking, thirty feet broad. The houses are built of stone, after the manner of those in Holland. The city is about a league and a half in circumference, and has five gates; but there are ten times the number of houses without that there are within it. There is a very fine town-house, four Calvinist churches, besides other places of worship for all sorts of religions, a spin-huys or house of correction, an orphan-house, a magazine of sea stores, several for spices, with wharfs and cord manufactories, and many other public buildings. The garrison consists commonly of between 2000 and 3000 men. Besides the forts mentioned above, there is the citadel of Batavia, a very fine regular fortification, situated at the mouth of the river, and flanked with four bastions; two of which command the sea, and the other two the town. It is in the citadel that the governor-general of the Indies has his palace; over against which is that of the director-general, who is the next person to the governor. The counsellors, and other principal officers of the company, have also their apartments there; as have likewise the physician, the surgeon, and the apothecary. There are in it, besides, arsenals and magazines furnished with ammunition for many years. The city of Batavia is not only inhabited by Dutch, French, Portuguese, and other Europeans, established here on account of trade; but also by a vast number of Indians of different nations, Javanese, Chinese, Malayans, Negroes, Ambonese, Armenians, natives of the isle of Bali, Mardykers or Topasses, Macassers, Timors, Bougis, &c. Of the Chinese, there are, it is said, said, about 100,000 in the island; of which near 30,000 resided in the city till the year 1740, when the Dutch, pretending that they were in a plot against them, sent a body of troops into their quarter, and demanded their arms, which the Chinese readily delivered up; and the next day the governor sent another body, with orders to murder and massacre every one of the Chinese, men, women, and children. Some relate there were 20,000, others 30,000, that were put to death, without any manner of trial; and yet the barbarous governor, who was the instrument of this cruel proceeding, had the assurance to embark for Europe, imagining he had amassed wealth enough to secure him against any prosecution in Holland; but the Dutch, finding themselves detested and abhorred by all mankind for this piece of tyranny, endeavoured to throw the odium of it upon the governor, though he had the hands of all the council of Batavia, except one, to the order for the massacre. The states, therefore, dispatched a packet to the Cape of Good Hope, containing orders to apprehend the governor, and send him back to Batavia to be tried. He was accordingly apprehended at the Cape; but was never heard of afterwards. It supposed he was thrown over-board in his passage to Batavia, that there might be no farther inquiries into the matter; and it is said, all the wealth this merciful gentleman had amassed, and sent over before him in four ships, was cast away in the passage.

Besides the garrison here, the Dutch had formerly about 15,000 men in the island, either Dutch, or formed out of the several nations they had enslaved; and they had a fleet of between 20 and 30 men of war, with which they gave law to every power on the coast of Asia and Africa, and to all the European powers that visit the Indian ocean, unless we should except the British. Java was taken by the British in 1811, which nearly terminated the Dutch power in the East.