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Batavia (City and seaport of Java)

a city and seaport of Java, on the N. coast of the island, the capital of all the Dutch East Indies. It is situated on a wide, deep bay, the principal warehouses and the offices of the Europeans being in the old town, which is built on a low, marshy plain near the sea and very unhealthful; while the Europeans reside in a 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 18th century. Its inhabitants are chiefly Malay. Pop. (1917) about 180,000 natives, about 30,000 Chinese, Arabs and other Orientals, and about 24,000 Europeans.