State Library of NSW
[Page 541]
437. Some account of Batavia
they have nevertheless some advantages in their situation among morasses, [Margin note] Road a Bank where the roads, which are almost universaly a bank thrown up, between a canal & a ditch, might easily be destroyd, & consequently the bringing of heavy artillery very much retarded, unless they could be got upon some canal, & a sufficient number of proper boats securd to transport them, of which there are plenty, but they all muster every night, under the very guns of the Castle, from whence it would be impossible to take them. Delays howsoever from whatever cause they might happen would be inevitably fatal, [Margin note] unhealthy in less than a week we were sensible of the unhealthyness of the climate, & in a months time one half of the ships company were unable to perform their duty, but could a very small body of men get soon to the walls of Batavia, bringing with them a few Battering cannon, the town must inevitably yeild, on account of the weakness of its defence. we were told that
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