The officer who presides here has the title of Governor General of the Indies, and the Dutch Governors of all the other settlements are subordinate to him, and obliged to repair to Batavia that he may pass their accounts. If they appear to have been criminal, or even negligent, he punishes them by delay, and detains them during pleasure, sometimes one year, sometimes two years, and sometimes three; for they cannot quit the place till he gives them a dismission. Next to the Governor are the members of the council, called here Edele Heeren, and by the corruption of the English, Idoleers. These Idoleers take upon them so much state that whoever meets them in a carriage, is expected to rise up and bow, then to drive on one side of the road, and there stop till they are past: the same homage is required also to their wives and even their children; and it is commonly paid them by the inhabitants. But some of our Captains have thought so slavish a mark of respect beneath the dignity which they derived from the service of his Britannic Majesty, and have refused to pay it; yet, if they were in a hired carriage, nothing could deter the coachman from honouring the Dutch Grandee at their expence, but the most peremptory menace of immediate death.

Voyaging Accounts