This page has already been transcribed. You can find new pages to transcribe here.

Transcription

[Page 598]

494
Some account of Batavia

at pleasure & then their teeth are as white as Ivory but very soon again regain their original blackness

No one who has ever been in these countries can be ignorant of the practise here which is calld Amoc, which is, that an Indian intoxicated with opium rushes into the street with a drawn Dagger in his hand, & kills every body he meets Especialy Europeans, till he himself is either killd or taken, this happned at Batavia three times while we were there to my knowledge, & much oftener I beleive, for the Marineu or Constable whose business it is to apprehend such people himself, told me that there was scarce a week when either himself or some of his brethren were not calld upon to seize or kill them, so far however from being an accidental madness which drove the people to kill whoomsoever they met without distinction of persons, the three that I knew of & I have been told all others, had been severely Injurd  cheifly in love affairs, & first revengd themselves on the party who had Injurd them, it is true they had made themselves drunk with opium before they committed this action, & when it was done rushd out into the streets, foaming at the mouth like mad dogs, with their drawn Crise or Dagger in their hands, but

 

Current Status: 
Completed