"Were impartial justice to be adhered to, the Chinese would be looked upon and treated only as foreigners, who are suffered and admitted, as long as it is not injurious to our interest and safety, to settle in our country and under our protection, seeking in trade or agriculture their means of subsistence and emolument, and to whom, on account of their numbers, it is allowed by our indulgence, as long as they conduct themselves well and peaceably, to preserve and practise their own manners and customs, and even in particular places, to dwell together under their own chiefs. "All the Chinese who come to Java every year in such vast numbers, in the junks from China, or in other vessels from neighbouring places, are the refuse of their nation, and principally from a province, the natives of which are considered by their own countrymen the worst of the whole empire. These people come half naked and poor in the extreme: they add, therefore, so many more to the population, which must be supported by the country, to which however they contribute nothing. It must be acknowledged, they are, particularly at first, very active, industrious, inventive, and frugal. At Batavia they exercise almost every useful art, trade, and handicraft, they cultivate and produce the best vegetables, they work the sugar-mills, and appear therefore to be uncommonly useful and perhaps indispensable. "The trade in the interior, wholesale and retail: the trade to sea, to the opposite shores, and elsewhere in the Straits, is entirely in their hands, and is almost wholly carried on by them. In all considerable places on the coast, as well as in the interior of Java, they have distinct towns, called kampongs, where they live under their own chiefs, and follow their own customs and manners. Finally, they have exclusively all the farms of the government taxes and revenues, both in the Company's districts and in the dominions of the native princes: by which means they are complete masters of all trade, internal and foreign; and are enabled to make monopolies in every thing, which they do accordingly in the most extensive manner. The burthens they have to bear are, on the contrary, very trifling; in fact, almost nothing: especially because they are exempt from all feudal and personal services, which are so oppressive to the Javans. "To what can this impropriety and injustice be ascribed but to the government of Batavia? The Chinese have obtained all these favours and privileges by making considerable presents, and thus sacrificing the interests of the Company and the nation to their selfishness and avarice. These arbitrary governors of the East Indies have made the Chinese possessors of Java: for I undertake to prove, that the wealth of the Chinese on that island amounts to ten times as much as the property of all the Europeans added together, and that their profits every year bear the same proportion.