Bataan

“ At Bataan he found all things in as good order as if the new converts had sucked in Christianity with their mothers’ milk. The Lord began to show these Indians great mercy, both spiritual and temporal. He gave them a succession of fertile years, which, being farmers, they estimate more highly than anything else. They also saw the land visited by a great plague of locusts, which attacked the fields of the heathen but left those of the Christians untouched. ”

“ Consideration be given for sick and wounded soldiers and civilians.
4. That U.S. Army transportation be used to carry sick and wounded to any internment camp that the Japanese General may direct. General Homma's Chief of Staff shouted, "Yuo vill sullendah unconitionarry!"
Bataan Falls: On April 9, 1942, starvation, disease and the ubiquitous Japanese caused the collapse of Bataan. General King became the first U.S. general ever forced to surrender his command to an enemy. He referred to his "heroes of Bataan" as follows: "Courage is a quality God has seen fit to dispense with utmost care. ”

“ This avocation of his would have sufficed most men for their full duty, but he did it in addition to his regular work as vicar-general. The villages were at such a distance from Manila that it took more than a day to go there by sea, and much more by the rivers.14 In order to teach the new fathers the manner of working with the Indians, and to begin to acquaint them with the language of the natives, which he knew very well, he went with them to the villages commonly known as Bataan. ”

“ We learned that guerrillas in the proper environment and in cooperation with friendly natives can harass an enemy for many months and gain much valuable time and information.
We learned that a fledgling Fil-American force on Bataan and Corregidor could sustain the most crushing campaigns of the mightiest army in the Far East for months, before being starved into submission.
Perhaps, if there had been more Bataans, the course of World War II might have been altered.
Eugene C. Jacobs
Three Great Things Necessary for Survival
In a Prisoner-of-War Camp.
FAITH IN THE GOOD LORD! A WILL TO LIVE! ”

“ Since the fortune of war has conducted me hither, and it is little probable that business, necessity, or pleasure, should ever lead me again to this part of the continent of Europe, I am resolved, if I can obtain permission, to profit by the occasion, and make the tour of the United Provinces. I say the United Provinces, because the Batavian republic has not yet obtained a place in our maps and gazetters; and to the one I associate something that is great and heroic, whereas the other conveys to my mind no favourable ideas. ”

“ Batavia, called by some writers, the Queen of the East, on account of its wealth and the beauty of its buildings, is situate very near the sea, in a fertile plain, watered by the river Jaccatra, which divides the town. The sea-shore is on the north of the city; and on the south the land rises with a very gentle slope to the mountains, which are about fifteen leagues inland. ”

“ Whatever changes the revolution may have produced in the manners and habits of the Dutch, I am persuaded that there remains in the nation a rich fund of old Batavian virtue, integrity, and honour: that the genuine principles of liberty are nowhere better understood, or more fervently admired, though, by the unhappy circumstances of the times, perverted or neglected: that no-where are the domestic and social duties of life more sedulously cultivated. ”

“ Let us come down to plain facts. After three years of revolutionary rhetoric the Batavian Republic for all intents and purposes had become a French province—a province inhabited by rather backwoodsy people (the Batavian minister as chief Rube in the Follies of 1798, an enormous success) , people who simply never could make up their minds, whose very political upheavals had to be staged abroad, who had to be guided about like small children, and who only received some respect from their neighbours because they still had a few pennies in their pocketbook. ”

“ Bata ́via, a city and seaport of Java, on the north coast of the island, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. It is situated on a wide, deep bay, the principal warehouses and offices of the Europeans, the Java Bank, the exchange, &c., being in the old town, which is built on a low, marshy plain near the sea, intersected with canals and very unhealthy; while the Europeans reside in a new and much healthier quarter. Batavia has a large trade, sugar being the chief export. It was founded by the Dutch in 1619, and attained its greatest prosperity in the beginning of the eighteenth century. ”

“ Batavia proper is a commonplace city of featureless streets, brick-walled canals, and ramshackle public buildings, but the residential town of Weltevreden, suggesting a glorified Holland, combines the quaint charm of the mother country with the Oriental grace and splendour of the tropics. ”

“ A motor-car ride through the residential quarter and round the suburbs of Batavia gives one a good idea of the extent of the town, and, incidentally, of the merging of East and West in the population. Former Dutch residents have left their impress in more respects than one, and one result is a half-caste population which takes a much more prominent part in the affairs of the island than is the case, so far as we are aware, in any British Colony. ”

“ Amusements which are to be found at Batavia. The principal inhabitants of Batavia endeavoured to make our stay agreeable to us. Great feasts in the town and country, concerts, charming walks, the variety of objects united here, and most of them new to us, the sight of the emporium of the richest commerce in the world; and, more than this, the appearance of several people who, though of entirely opposite manners, customs, and religion, however form one society; every thing in fine concurred to charm the eye, instruct the navigator, and interest even the philosopher. ”

“ The Island of Java, sometimes called "Great," on account of Balie having once been called by the same name, is nearly five hundred miles in length, and a place of considerable importance in the commercial world; that part of it occupied by the Dutch, producing coffee, rice, and "straits produce." Batavia, the principal settlement, is a city of considerable importance, only about sixty miles by land from Anger, a communication being kept up by post between the two places. It is described as a very populous and beautiful city, but of a climate, at certain seasons, deadly to Europeans. ”

“ Extrordinary as it may seem there are very few Javans, that is descendants of the original inhabitants of Java, who live in the neighbourhood of Batavia. But as many countries as the Dutch import slaves from, so many sorts of Indians are there, who are either slaves made free or the desendants of such; they are alltogether calld by the name of Oran Slam or Isalam, a name by which they distinguish themselves from all other religions, it signifying beleivers of the true faith. ”

“ On this account the religious and I have had some quarrels, but I know that they have not been right; for my zeal and desire has not been to prevent their having houses, but to prevent their taking so many that they could not support those establishments without harm to themselves and to the Indians. When your Lordship says that two are sufficient in Batan, you show clearly that you are not well informed of what is needed in order that there be religious instruction; for in Batan there is need of two more friars in order that it may be well instructed. ”

“ An intercourse is kept up with the settlement of Batavia, chiefly through the means of American vessels, three or four of which arrive annually at Amsterdam laden with the produce of that colony; and notwithstanding it is probable it will be attacked by the English, the Dutch do not appear to entertain any fears for the safety of this, their most valuable establishment in India. The loss of their other colonies and islands affects them more for the disgrace which their capture has brought on the Dutch arms, than for any essential injury which the nation has thereby sustained. ”

“ Modern Batavia had 111,763 inhabitants on December 31, 1894, less than a tenth of whom are Europeans, with 26,776 Chinese and 72,934 natives. While the eighteenth-century Stadhuis might have been brought from Holland entire, a steam tramway starts from its door and thence shrieks its way to the farthest suburb, the telephone “hellos” from center to suburb, and modern inventions make tropical living possible.
The Dutch do not welcome tourists, nor encourage one to visit their paradise of the Indies. ”

“ They are almost universally built upon one and the same plan, whether small or large. In general they are low, and universally covered with thatch; precautions said to be necessary against the violence of the S.E. winds, which at some seasons of the year came down from the Table Mountain with incredible violence.
Of the inhabitants, a far larger proportion are real Dutch than of those of Batavia; but as the whole town is in a manner supported by entertaining and supplying strangers, each man in some degree imitates the manners and customs of the nation with which he is chiefly concerned. ”

“ There is a great deal of pleasant society in Batavia. Rich Dutch merchants who have come out in their earlier years to make money, go home to settle; but the cold gloom of Holland sends them back to warmth and tropical life in Java. Though Java is to the Dutch what India is to us, unlike our Indian officials, who stay in India but to make enough money to go home to England, the Dutchman lives and returns to die in his adopted home. ”

“ Batavia is the metropolis of the Dutch trade and settlements in India, and is well situated for the spice trade, which they have entirely in their own hands. There are seldom less than twenty sail of Dutch ships at Batavia, carrying from thirty to fifty and sixty guns each. Abraham van Ribeck was governor-general when we were there. His predecessor, as I was informed, had war with the natives of the island, who had like to have ruined the settlement ”

“ In the environs of Batavia are a number of villages, some inhabited by Malays, and others by Chinese, who visit the island in great numbers, and carry on a considerable trade, notwithstanding the persecutions to which they have at times been subject. In various beautiful spots, both near the city or the neighbouring hills, and along the sea-shore, are found the large and handsome country residences of the chief merchants and other authorities connected with the Company. There are five principal roads which lead from the city towards the country, and which are planted with high and shady trees. ”

“ The Women are not so tawny as the Men, and many of them handsom, but in general amorous, and unfaithful to their Husbands or others, being very apt to give Poison, which they do very cunningly. It would be too tedious for me to describe all the remarkable Things I saw at Batavia. In short, I was perfectly surpriz’d, when I came hither, to see such a noble City, and Europeans so well settled in the Indies. The Town is very populous, but {298}not one Sixth of them Dutch. The Chineze here go all bare-headed, with their Hair roul’d up, and long Gowns, carrying Fans in their Hands. ”

“ I forget where. Batavia, I think, was the name of the place; but I ain't sure, for it is an age since I heard from him."
"Your remembrance is correct, nevertheless, sir," responded the stranger. "It was in Batavia that he took up his residence, and in Batavia that he died, at an advanced age, an old bachelor, possessed of large wealth, as I have been given to understand; and I offer my congratulations to you, gentlemen, for the reason that you are his fortunate heirs to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars." ”

“ Batavia, April 14, Anno 1772.
You 'll find the story in any book: the chap was a half-caste Guy Fawkes who conspired to deliver Batavia to the King of Bantam, was caught, tried, and torn asunder by horses. I nosed about and went through a hole in a side wall: nothing in the compound but green mould, dried stalks, dead leaves, and blighted banana trees. The inside of the gate was blocked with five to eight feet of cement. The Dutch hate solidly. ”

“ The country around Batavia is extremely beautiful, and it may be said that nature and art seem to strive which shall have the greatest share in adorning it. The air is sweet and mild, the land extremely fertile, and the face of the country finely diversified with hills and vallies, all laid out in regular plantations, beautiful canals, and whatever can contribute to render the country pleasant and agreeable. ”

“ All manner of men meet here: drivers of sadoos or hack carriages, small merchants, artizans, Government clerks, policemen, water-carriers, servants, hadjis, [D] not to mention the "corresponding" womankind. They talk, they talk! and they laugh! The affairs of all Batavia are discussed here—matters of business, intrigue, love, money, office, everything, material to make a Javanese Decamerone of, if a Boccaccio would but come and put it into shape. There are several of these warongs about Tanah-Abang and the Koningsplein, and, of course, in the native quarters. ”

“ The French troops which are quartered in the Hague amount to about twelve hundred men; and are under the command of General Victor, who distinguished himself greatly at the battle of Marengo. General Victor is commander in chief of the French forces in the service of the Batavian republic, and is out of comparison more respected than his predecessor, notwithstanding the important services which General Brune rendered to the republic. The French troops, which do not exceed at present eight thousand men, receive their pay from, and are wholly maintained by, the Batavian government. ”