xceptionable bills on
Europe will find a considerable saving by negotiating their bills with
private people who are glad to give for them a premium of 20 per cent at
the least. This discovery I made somewhat too late to profit by.

One of the greatest difficulties that strangers have to encounter is
their being obliged to live at the hotel. This hotel was formerly two
houses which by doors of communication have been made one. It is in the
middle of a range of buildings more calculated for a cold country than
for such a climate as Batavia. There is no free circulation of air and
what is equally bad it is always very dirty; and there is great want of
attendance. What they call cleaning the house is another nuisance; for
they never use any water to cool it or to lay the dust, but sweep daily
with brooms in such a manner that those in the house are almost
suffocated by a cloud of dust.

The months of December and January are reckoned the most unhealthy of the
year, the heavy rains being then set in. The account of the seasons as
given to me here I believe may be relied on.

The middle of November the west monsoon begins and rain.

December and January. Continual rain with strong westerly wind.

February. Westerly wind. Towards the end of this month the rain begins to
abate.

March. Intervals of fine weather. Wind westerly.

April. In this month the east monsoon begins. Weather generally fine with
showers of rain.

May. East monsoon fixed. Showery.

June and July. Clear weather. Strong east wind.

August and September. Wind more moderate.

October. In this month the wind begins to be variable with showers of
rain.

The current is said always to run with the wind. Nevertheless I found the
reverse in sailing from Timor to Java. Between the end of October and the
beginning of the ensuing year no Dutch ship bound for Europe is allowed
to sail from Batavia for fear of being near the Mauritius at the time of
the hurricanes which are frequent there in December and January.

My illness prevented me from gaining much knowledge of Batavia. Of their
public buildings I saw nothing that gave me so much satisfaction as their
country hospital for seamen. It is a large commodious and airy building
about four miles from the town, close to the side of the river, or rather
in the river: for the ground on which it stands has by labour been made
an island of, and the sick are carried there in a boat: each ward is a
separate dwell