The following day we passed up the river, by the boat being tracked: (the current running down at a rapid rate, preventing boats being pulled against it;) on each side an extensive wooden jetty was erecting, a great portion of which was now completed; it extended to the bar at the river’s entrance, with a breakwater in front, having a passage on each side for boats. The expense of the construction of this jetty is paid by a duty of five per cent. being levied upon the amount of duties on all imported goods. A number of native convicts were employed in driving piles, &c. to complete this very useful undertaking. On arriving at the Custom House, our boat was searched. Miserable houses lined the river on either side; cocoa-nut palms, and other trees, including the _Thespesia populnea_, were planted about the dwellings; masses of filth, dead and putrid bodies of dogs, hogs, and other animals, float down the river, impeding the boats in their passage: these carcases serve to feed the numerous alligators (Buáya of the Javanese) which infest the river in great numbers, but are useful in removing the putrefying substances, which would otherwise be destructive to health in this sultry climate. The alligators are held sacred by the Javanese, who consequently never destroy them: indeed, the good understanding seems mutual; for I observed native convicts working up to the waist in the water, not far from these voracious creatures, (reposing like logs on the surface of the water,) without fear or apprehension, injury from them never being experienced. Some say the alligators are too well fed with the offal and carcases coming down the river; others, that the reptiles have a respect for black skins; for should a European enter the river like the natives, he would be attacked by these formidable creatures. I saw a number of these reptiles, one morning, assembled about a dead buffalo, which had floated down the river near the bar; from the size of some of them, they must have survived several generations. We landed near a row of neat houses, having trees planted in front, which conduced, in this sultry climate, to afford an agreeable shelter from the fervour of the sun: these buildings were principally occupied as stores and offices by the merchants. The streets of Batavia run for the most part in a north and south direction; are kept in neat order, regularly watered, and planted with rows of trees in the Dutch style; these formerly adorned the banks of canals, which intersected the streets, rendering the city as pestilential a place as could be met with between the tropics. During the brief period the island was under the British government, the canals were filled up; the main stream of the “Grand River,” and its tributaries, alone remaining.