Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0610
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[Page 610]
506
Some account of Batavia
deceasd attending as well as women hird to weep, the Corps is Naild up in a large thick wooden Coffin, not made of Plank but hollowd out of the trunk of a tree, this is let down into the Grave, & then surrounded 8 or 10 inches thick with their mortar or chinam as it is calld, which in a short time becomes hard as stone, so that the bones of the meanest among them are more carefully preserv'd from Injury, than those of our greatest & most respected people
[Margin note] Govt.
Of the Goverment here I can say but very little, only that an uncommonly great subordination is kept up, every man who is able to keep house having a certain rank acquird by the lengh of his services to the Company, which ranks are distinguishd by the ornaments of the Coaches & dresses of the Coachmen, of such as have them as for instance, one must ride in a plain Coach, another Paints his Coach with figures & gives his Coachman a lacd hat, another gilds his Coach &c.
The Governor General as he is calld who resides here, is superior over all the dutch