the
journey without danger. Accordingly, all the goods were discharged from
it and transhipped to that in which we embarked for Batavia.
On the 2nd of June \ we crossed the line, and on the 6th reached the island called Nazacos.2 On the 17th we sighted the coast of Sumatra, on the 18th the island of Ingagne,3 and
on the 19th the island of Fortune. On the 20th we saw several other
small islands, and the coast of Java, and among these islands there are
three which are called Prince's Islands.4 On the 21st we saw
the island of Bantam, and on the 22nd we anchored in the roads at
Batavia. On the following day 1 landed, and went to salute General
Vanderlin and M. Caron,5 the Director-General, who was the second officer in the council.
On
the 25th, two days after my arrival, the General sent one of his guards
to invite me to dinner, where there were assembled M. Caron, two other
councillors, the Avocat Fiscal, the Major, and their wives. Whilst we
were at table they conversed about the news from foreign countries, and
principally of the court of the King of Persia, and after dinner some
began to play backgammon, while waiting till it became cool enough to
take exercise outside the town by the river's bank, where there are
very fine bathing places. The General went to his office, where he
asked me to accompany him. After some conversation on indifferent
matters he asked me for what purpose I had come to Batavia. I told him
I had principally come to see so renowned a place ; and as I had an
opportunity of doing service to the Company at the request of the Chief
of the factory at Vengurla, I had been
' In the 1713 edition this is given, probably incorrectly, as July. J une appears to be correct.
2 Not identified, but it may be remarked that nusa is Javanese for a small island, and like pulo is used as a prefix to the true name. (Crawfurd, Dictionary, 303.)
3
Ball suggests that it may be Indragiri, a Malay State on the coast of
Sumatra: but there is an island named Engano, about 200 miles SSE. of
Nassau Island (A. Hamilton, in Pinkerton, viii. 449).
* There is a Prince Island in Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra. 6 M. Caron, a renegade Dutchman, founded the first French factory in India, at Surat, in 1668. {Imperial Gazetteer, ii. 463, xii. 104.)
