Batavia, being between thirty
and forty sail great and small; and at six in the evening we came to
anchor, in between six and seven fathoms, in the long-desired port of
Batavia, in lat 6 deg. 10' S. and long. 252 deg. 51' W. from London.[231] We had
here to alter our account of time, having lost almost a day in going
round the world so far in a western course.
[Footnote 231: The latitude in the text is sufficiently accurate, but
the longitude is about a degree short. It ought to have been 253 deg. 54' W.
from Greenwich - E.]
After coming in sight of Batavia, and more especially after some sloops
or small vessels had been aboard of us, I found that I was quite a
stranger to the dispositions and humours of our people, though I had
sailed so long with them. A few days before they were perpetually
quarrelling, and a disputed lump of sugar was quite sufficient to have
occasioned a dispute. But now, there was-nothing but hugging and shaking
of hands, blessing their good stars, and questioning if such a paradise
existed on earth; and all because they had arrack for eight-pence a
gallon, and sugar for a penny a pound.
