This hand-coloured engraving of the Dutch colonial capital of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) was created by Jan Van Ryne in 1754. Van Ryne was born in the Netherlands; but spent most of his working life in London; where he specialized in producing engravings of scenes from the British and Dutch colonies. Located at the mouth of the Ciliwung River; Jakarta was the site of a settlement and port possibly going back as far as the fifth century CE. In 1619; the Dutch captured and razed the existing city of Jayakerta (meaning 'glorious fortress' in Sundanese) and built the walled township of Batavia; which became the capital of the Dutch East Indies.