Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/492

434 Malays are much quieter, honester, and more diligent, and less wicked than in that place: in instance of which I need only say that there has never been a case of running amoc here.

The town is governed by a Governor and Council who are quite independent of Batavia. The present Governor is Ryck Tulback. He is very old, and has long enjoyed his present station with a most universal good character, which is easily explained in this manner: he is unmarried, and has no connections which may make him wish to make more money than his salary furnishes him with; consequently, not entering into trade, he interferes with no man, and not wishing to be bribed, does strict justice on all occasions to the best of his abilities.

The climate, though not at all too hot for those who come from India, would doubtless appear sufficiently warm could any one be transported immediately from England to this place. Upon the whole it seems much of the temperature as the island of Madeira, though scarcely quite so hot. This I judge from the productions. In general, during the whole summer, the air is frequently fanned by S.E. winds, which come off the hills above the town with vast violence, and during the time of their blowing, especially at first, are very troublesome to such as are obliged to be abroad in them, by raising the sand with which the whole country abounds, and filling their eyes with it. Nor are the houses quite free from its effects; however closely they are shut up, the sand will find an entrance, and in a short time cover every kind of furniture with a thick dust.

Inconvenient as this certainly is, it, however, does not seem to have any effect beyond the present moment, though the inhabitants must in the course of a summer inhale an immense quantity of this sand, which has been thought by some physicians to be productive of ulcers in the lungs, etc. etc. Yet consumptions are diseases scarcely known here, and the healthy countenances, fresh complexions, and above all, the number of children with which all ranks of people