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GIFT OF
HORACE W. CARPENTER

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ZIEKE REIZIGER;

0£y

RAMBLES IN JAYA

AND THE STRAITS.

IN 1852.

BY A BENGAL CIVILIAN.

OSft^ IUn»t(ation0.

LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.,

STATIONERS' HALL COURT.

TEIGNMOUTH :
GEORGE HENRY CROYDON, ROYAL LIBRARY.

CALCUTTA: THAOKES, SPINK AND CO.
BOMBAY: THACKBK AND 00.

M.DCCC.LIII.

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Printed by K. and G. H. Croydon, Royal Libivy, Teignmoulh.

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DEDICATION.

To his beloved Mother^ as a sincere though unworthy tribute of
his filial love, these pages are inscribed, with every sentiment of
esteem and r^ard, by her attached son,

THE AUTHOR.

JUKB, 1853.

^■:i24rj0

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAP OF THE ISLAND OF JAVA

FINANG, FUOM BICHMOKD HILL

8IK6AF0BB, F£OM THE EAST SIDE OF OOTEBMMENT HILL

A SKETCH FBOM CUNNIVO'S BUKIT, SINGAFOBE

JAVAKESS MAN AND WOMAN OF THE POOEBB CLASS

DUTCH CHT7BCH AT BATAVIA .

JAVANESE COACHMAN ....

THE SALAH MOUNTAIN, FBOM THE BUITENZ0B6 HOTEL

MOSQUE AT BAND0N6 ....

THE TEA PLANT ....

THE COFFEE PLANT • . . •

THE S0EMADAN6 HOTEI^ FBOM THE BBIDGE

A WOMAN OF CHEBIBON.

CHEBIBON, AS SEEN FBOM THE STEAMBB

PASSEN6BANG AT BOMIAGOE

A VILLAGE NEAB KUBOOMAN .

HEAD OF THE FIGUBE ON THE BIGHT SIDE OF THE SKETCH

TEMPLE, AND FIGUBE NEAB BOBO-BODOB
INTEBIOB OF THE TEMPLE OF TJANDIE
THE ENTBANCE TO BOBO-BODOB TEMPLE
TJANDIE, DAPOB, NEAB BOBO-BODOB
THE NUTMEG, JUST BBFOBS IT DBOPS .
SINGAPOBE, FBOM THE WEST SIDE OF OOVEBNMENT HILL
A SKETCH ON THE PENANG HILL
A SKETCH ON THE PENANG HILL .

To face Title,
Fage 8
10
13
20
34
43
61
55
57
66

74
11
86

OF BOBO-BODOB

126-
126
130
136

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PREFACE.

The following pages contain the record of a
hurried visit to the Straits and the Island of
Java in 1852. The Diary was not ori^ally in-
tended for publication^ either in the form in which
it now appears^ or under any other, but was
written solely for the Author's own amusement,
and to fin up an idle hour or two, when other
resources of employment or recreation were not
within his reach.

The Journal has no pretensions to literary merit,
and is only now published at the solicitation of
friends, who have urged upon the Author that in
the absence of any work whatever of the nature

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VIU PREFACE.

of a Hand Book relative to the Straits and Java,
even the crude notes of "De Zieke Reiziger/' or
the Invalid Traveller, would not be without their
use, particularly at the present time, when through
the arrangements lately concluded with the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company, the chief port of Java
has been brought within twelve days sailing distance
of the Hooghly.

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CONTENTS.

Page

CHAPTER I.

author's ILLNBSS — PBRPLEXITIES OF THE MOOFU88II/ DOCTORS, AND SIMPLE
MODE OP SOLVIXO THE SAME — JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA — EMBARK ON BOARD
THE ORIENTAL AND PENINSULAR COMPANT's STEAMER FOR SINGAPORE —
BAD FOOD ON BOARD THE STEAMER — SINGULAR DISEASE OF A FELLOW-
PASSENGER — ARRIVAL AT PENANG BEAUTIFUL SCENERY OF THE ISLAND^

RELATIVE TEMPERATURE OF THE HILL AND THE PLAIN .... 1

CHAPTER n.

ARRIVAL AT SINGAPORE — THE NEW HARBOUR — PICTURESaUE APPEARANCE OF
THE TOWN AND ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE GOVERNMENT HILL — HOTEL
AND BOARDING-HOUSES ; THEIR CHARACTER, STYLE, AND CHARGES — SINGA-
PORE PALKIES — PUBLIC BALL IN HONOUR OF THE QUEEN's BIRTHDAY —
CLIMATE AND TEMPERATURE OF SINGAPORE — PUBLIC LIBRARY AND READ-
ING-ROOM 10

CHAPTER III.

DEPARTURE FROM SINGAPORE — THE DUTCH STEAMER ' JAVA* — ACCOMMODATION
AND STYLE OF LIVING ON BOARD— THE GOVERNMENT MAIL AGENT AND
HIS BRIDE — THE PASSENGER WITH ONLY ONE BAR — RHIO— STRAITS OF
BANCA — DETENTION AT MUITOK — RUN OCT OF COAL — ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA. 19

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTEE V.

CHAPTER Vn.

Page

BATAYIA, APPROACH — INSALUBRITY — HOTELS IN JAVA — DUTCH COOKERY —

PLACES OP PUBLIC AMUSEMENT MODE OP LIPE AT BATAYIA — EUROPEAN

PORTION OP THE TOWN ; COMPARATIVE SALUBRITY OP — SINGULAR STYLE
OP DRESS OP THE BATAVIAN LADIES — MORNING COSTUME OP THE GENTLE-
MEN — JAVA WASHERMEN 30

TRAVELLING IN JAVA COST OP POST-HORSES — HOW PROCURABLE — PRICE OP A

TRAVELLING-CARRIAGE — LEAVE RATA VI A — THE BENGAL AYAH — DINNER AT
GOVERNMENT HOUSE — THE AUTHOR TAKES A WALK, WHICH PROVES A
SOMEWHAT LONGER ONE THAN HE HAD RECKONED ON — THE BOTANICAL
GARDENS AT BUITENZORG 39

CHAPTER VI.

LEAVE BUITENZORG JAVA POSTING ASCEND THE MEGAMENDON — VIEW PROM

THE TOP OP THE PASS TJIPANAS — REACH TJANJORB — HOTEL AT THAT
PLACE— CROSS THE TJEBTARAM, AND ARRIVE AT BANDONG THE MONT-
PELIER OP JAVA 50

BANDONG, NEAT AND CLEANLY APPEARANCE OP— JAVANESE HATS— SHOPS

EATING BOOTHS — ^VIEW OP BANDONG PROM THE OUTSKIRTS OP THE VIL-
LAGE MR. L 'S TEA PLANTATION — NATURE OP HIS CONTRACT WITH

THE GOVERNMENT — ^VISIT THE WATBRPALL OUR LANDLADY — ^A CURIOUS

PASSAGE IN HER CURIOUS HISTORY^ONVBRSATION AT THE TABLE d'hOTB

— THE UPAS TREE 55

CHAPTER Vm.

DELIGHTPUL CLIMATE OP BANDONG ABOMINABLE DIET, AND STILL MORE

ABOMINABLE COOKERY — VISIT THE TEA PLANTATIONS OP TJEMBOLEYUT

LEMBANG MR. PHILIPPEAN's COPPSE ESTABLISHMENT — DELICIOUS CLIMATE

— THE REVENUE SYSTEM IN JAVA — PRODUCTIVE POWER OP THE COPPEE
PLANT — ESTIMATE OP RAPPLES TOO HIGH— VISIT THE CRATER ON THE
TANKBRHAN PROW — DINE WITH SOME CHINESE GENTLEMEN — MADAME
PPBIPPBR — LEAVE BANDONG, 80MADANG DESCRIPTION OP — ^ARRIVE AT
CHERIBON 64

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CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER IX.

Page

WOMKN OP CHSaiBON — H0TBL8 AND HORSES DBTBRIORATE — TAOAL — A PAS-

SENORANG — THE BENGAL AT AH THE REGENT OF TAGAL ; EXCHANGE

VISITS WITH — VISIT THE TOMB OF THE 8USVNAN TAGAL-WANOI — DINE
WITH THE RESIDENT — ^LBAVB TAGAL — JAVANESE HOSPITALITV — BOMIAJOE
— ^JOURNET TO BANJ0BMA8 — UNHEALTHY POSITION OF THE LATTER PLACE
— EDIBLE birds' NESTS 73

CHAPTER X.

KUBOOMAN — A NATIVE REVIEW — SERVILE DEFERENCE OF THE JAVANESE TO
SUPERIOR RANK — A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF M. DI SORNAI — THE GO-
VERNESS IN DISTRESS — ARRIVAL AT POORWUREDJOE — LADIES' MORNING
COSTUME — THE JAIL GOVERNMENT SCHOOL— ARRIVAL AT MAOELANO. . 81

CHAPTER XI.

THE RESIDENT AT MAGELANG ; UNC0URTE0U8 CONDUCT OF — A SUNDAY IN
ENGLAND AND A SUNDAY IN JAVA — ^VISIT THE BORO-BODOR AND MUNDOOT
TEMPLES — RECENT DISCOVERY OF THE LATTER — LEAVE MAGELANG DETEN-
TION IN THE SALATIGA JURISDICTION— COURTEOUS BEHAVIOUR OF THE
RESIDENT OF THAT DISTRICT— ARRIVAL AT SALATIGA — HOTEL THERE 90

CHAPTER Xn.

DETERMINE TO LEAVE JAVA— CAUSE OF THIS RESOLUTION — NO BETTER PHY-
SICIAN THAN A GOOD COOK — LEAVE SALATIGA FOR SAMARANG HEAT OF

THE LATTER PLACE — THE JAVA HOTEL — DRIVE THROUGH THE TOWN AND

ENVIRONS — A Dutchman's opinion of java — ^vast resources of the

COUNTRY YET TO BE DEVELOPED— DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING MEANS OF
TRANSPORT FOR THE PRODUCE — HOW REMOVABLE — PROBABLE RESULTS BAD
THE ISLAND REMAINED A BRITISH POSSESSION, AND PROBABLE EFFECTS
OF A CHANGE OF SYSTEM UNDER THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT ... 98

CHAPTER Xin.

RETURN TO BATAVIA — THE STEAMER ' KONINGEN' — A SUBALTERN's BREAKFAST
— JEALOUSY OF GOVERNMENT TOWARDS STRANGERS — CUSTOM HOUSES —
PASSPORT SYSTEM — PROPRIETARY RIGHT IN THE SOIL VESTED IN THE
SOVEREIGN ALONE — FEUDAL SERVICES — ^TAXES — ^TAX ON THE TRANSFER OF
PROPERTY — VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS — INDIGENOUS PLANTS — RELIGION OF
THE JAVANESE — THEIR HINDOO ORIGIN 105

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Xll CONTENTS.

CHAITEE XIV.

Page
THE " BARA KRAMA/' OR LANOUAOB OP HONOUR^— CHARACTER OF THE JAVA-

NE8E — SUITABLENESS OF JAVA AS A PLACE OF RESIDENCE FOR THE INDIAN

INVALID^TBE HOTEL DER NBDERLANDEN — THE WORD ** FASHIONABLE ;''

ITS APPLICATION AND SIGNIFICATION IN JAVA — HOSPITALITY OF THE

ENGLISH RESIDENTS AT BATAVIA — LEAVE JAVA — THE NORTH WATCH —

THE STEAMER RUNS UPON A ROCK — STANDING DISH FOR BREAKFAST ON

BOARD THE ' BATAVIA* — ARRIVE AT SINGAPORE 113

CHAFrER XV.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT SINGAPORE — 8MALLNESS OF THE CONGREGATION
— TO WHAT CAUSE ATTRIBUTABLE — FRUITS OF THE STRAITS — THE MAN-
GUSTIN — THE DURIAN — HOW TO DRIVE A PIG TO MARKET-— COOLNESS OF
THE TEMPERATURE IN THE INTERIOR — NUTMEGS AS AN EXPORT — A DRIVE
IN A SINGAPORE PALKI — THE * PEKIN* STEAMER — ARRIVAL AT PENANG 120

CHAPTER XVI.

MosaurroES — mr. fortune's MosauiTOs tobacco— the pbnang hill — the

LIONS OF PBNANG — ^THE GREAT TREE — WATERFALL— CLIMATE AND TEM-
PERATURE OF PENANG HILL IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER — A CASE OF
AM5k — PRODUCTS AND POPULATION OF THE ISLAND 129

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RAMBLES

JAVA AND THE STRAITS.

CHAPTER I.

AUTHOR^S lUiNESS — PERPLEXITIES OF THE MOOFUSSIL DOCTORS, AND

SIMPLE MODE OP SOLVING THE SAME — ^JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA

EMBARK ON BOARD THE ORIENTAL AND PENINSULAR COMPAnVs
STEAMER FOR SINGAPORE — BAD FOOD ON BOARD THE STEAMER —
SINGULAR DISEASE OF A FELLOW-PASSENGER — ARRIVAL AT PENANG
— BEAUTIFUL SCENERY OF THE ISLAND — RELATIVE TEMPERATURE
OF THE HILL AND THE PLAIN.

" You must get to sea without delay, the Hills will
do no good in your case."

Such was the dictum of the sapient trio who had
to pronounce upon the nature of our complaint, and
suggest the best means for its removal ; but, argued
we, the hot winds have set in, and at this season of
the year no one ever dreams of undertaking a sea
voyage for health.

*' Quite a mistake, Sir ; quite a mistake, I assure

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2 RAMBLES IN

you," interposed the senior member of the committee
"went to the Cape myself the end of April '27,
had a succession of calms in the Bay, it's true, but on
the whole we should have made a fine passage had we
not met with a hurricane off the Mauritius, and a
succession of stiff gales on rounding the Cape."

" I fear we cannot give you a certificate to visit the
Hills," mumbled the second member, "for as the
President has already observed, disease has set in, and
whenever that is the case, the sooner the patient gets
to sea the better."

" I concur wdth my colleagues," chimed in the junior
member, " nothing like sea air for mere functional de-
rangement."

Thus then it was decided by the Moofussil doctors,
not one of whom had the slightest idea of what we
were suffering from, that we must go to sea forthwith,
and as we were too ill to have any will of our own, or
at least too powerless to exert it, we resigned ourselves
to our fate, and consented to go to sea in spite even
of the southwest monsoon.

" And now, Mr. ^," said the senior member,

"before I say good bye, let me once more assure
you that your fears are perfectly groundless, and that
there is redly nothing whatever the matter with you ;
nothing I mean but what a week of sea air will not
effectually remove, you are suffering from dyspepsia,
what I should call an aggravated case of dyspepsia."

" Exactly so !" said the second member, " never
met with a clearer case in my life."

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 3

^^No organic disease whatever, only great func-
tional derangement," repeated the junior of the trio.
^' I should recommend mutton and sherry, with an
occasional blue pill," and with the above exceedingly
lucid expression of their opinion, the District Com-
mittee took their leave.

Our journey to Calcutta was accomplished in
safety, and was unmarked by any event worthy of
note, save that, in our passage through the Rajmahal
Hills, it was our fate to encounter one of the most
terrific storms it has ever been our lot to be ex-
posed to in any part of the world ; such was the fiiry
of the tempest for about an hour, that the bearers
were unable to move the carriage a single inch, and
finding the task was utterly hopeless, they endea-
voured to seek shelter from the pitiless storm, by
huddling closely together beneath the body of the car-
riage; our opium eating Khansaman, who occupied
the coach box, and who had hitherto kept up his
courage by the influence of his favourite drug, now
began to give way, and as a violent gust of wind
swept past the carriage extinguishing in its course
both of the lamps of our vehicle, he could contain
himself no longer, but gave vent to his pent up feel-
ings in a prolonged and unearthly howl, at the close
of which he prayed that the Prophet would shield
him from the Divine vengeance which had so long
pursued his master.

At the Presidency, we had the advantage of the
best advice the country can afford, and we were at

B 2

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4 RAMBLES IN

once apprized by our medical adviser there, that we
had for many months past been suffering from a
disease of a very serious nature, a fact of which we
had long been cognizant ourselves ; but of which the
Moofiissil Committee had failed to discover the
slightest indication.

The country doctors, however, had decided cor-
rectly in recommending sea air ; but as it would
appear to be the practice of those doctors, as we
have since heard, to send all their troublesome cases
to sea, we have not to thank their penetration
perhaps so much as our own good fortune, that they
recommended the correct course in the present
instance. As the southwest monsoon was close at
hand, and as previous experience had abundantly
proved that we were never intended for a sailor, we
determined to make a fair wind of it by confining
our voyagings to the Straits and the China Seas.
With this view we secured a comfortable cabin in
the China steamer, then about leaving, and in less
than a fortnight from the time of our arrival at the
Presidency, we found ourselves ploughing our way
through the muddy waters of the Hoogley, at the rate
of eleven knots an hour ; in little more than twelve
hours we were in blue water, and in another hour
the pilot had left the ship, and with him the last link
that bound us to the shores of India. It was rough,
unpleasant weather at the Sandheads, as it almost
always is, but we had the satisfaction of feeling that
every hour's progress we made would bring us into

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 6

comparatively smooth water ; and so it proved, for on
the following day we had all forgotten our past dis-
comforts, and there were no absentees from the
cuddy table.

There were several passengers on board, tlie ma-
jority of whom were, like ourselves, in quest of health.
It would have added much to their comfort, and our
own, had a little more care been bestowed on the
Commissariat department than we found to be the case
on board this vessel, considering that each passenger
is charged upwards of £50 for his passage from Cal-
cutta to China, and about £15 more for every servant
he may take along with him, it was but reasonable to
expect that the table would have been provided at
least with the common necessaries of life, but even in
this respect it was deficient ; the bread was perfectly
musty, and the milk was a pale, sickly looking fluid,
preserved in tins, which was doled out to those who
were rash enough to partake of it, by a spoonful at a
time. It is true the Captain signified to us that it
was his intention to submit a sample of llie former
from Penang, for the inspection of the Calcutta
agents; but still this was but sorry satisfaction to
the passengers, nearly all of whom were invalids,
and who had severally paid for their passage a
sum that ought to have been a sufficient guarantee
that the vessel would be provided with wholesome
food.

Had Mr. Green, or Wigram, or Smith, sent any
one of their fine ships to sea without a drop of fresh

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6 RAMBLES IN

milk, and with a supply of flour of such a quality,
that even a dog would be tempted to reject it, why
the owners of the vessel would, probably, have been
ruined; but the Peninsular and Oriental Company
have the good fortune to enjoy a monopoly, and
prefer wealth to popularity.

It is an unfortunate state of things, as far as the
public is concerned; but as there is no present
remedy for the evil, the only way is to submit to it
with the best grace possible.

At Penang we dropped some of our invalid pas-
sengers, amongst the number a Calcutta merchant.
The malady, on account of which this gentleman had
been advised to visit the Straits, was of so singular a
character, that we cannot forbear making some slight
mention of it.

The malady in question, regarding which no two
doctors held the same opinion, consisted of a simul-
taneous enlargement of the head, legs, and arms,
coming on rapidly, and without any previous warning.
The most singular feature of the disease was, that
the duration and violence of each paroxysm invariably
depended on the degree of patience and temper which
the patient might exhibit during the accession and
progress of the fit; if he could maintain ordinary
equanimity of temper, the fit was rarely long, and
never painful ; if, on the other hand, he lost his good
humour, and showed anything like fretfulness or im-
patience, the oedematous symptoms would continue to
increase to a distressing extent, and under no system

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 7

of treatment whatever, not even by exhibiting opiates,
or chloroform, would they subside, until the patient
had recovered his equanimity, and the nervous system
had been restored to its normal state.

It would be impossible, we think, for the pencil or
the pen accurately to draw the picture of a man so
situated as this unfortunate gentleman. He was a
very stout man, and yet a very spare man; at one
hour of the day he would convey to you the notion of
a man who weighed fourteen stone; at another he
looked thin enough to ride a jockey race. His
weight varied, as he informed us himself, from eleven
stone to fourteen, in the course of the twenty four
hours. His clothes never fitted him, as how could
they. He had tried scores of tailors, but the most
ingenious and the most sanguine of the lot had aban-
doned the task in despair. It was not possible, said
one of the most expert of the tribe, for human hands
to make a coat for a gentleman so circumstanced.
As a mad dog avoids water, so did this unfortunate
gentleman most studiously avoid placing himself in
any position that was likely to prove distressing or
inconvenient in reference to his peculiar malady.
Thus he never would be persuaded to sit in a
chair that had arms to it, neither would he ever
trust himself to sleep below, but from the begin-
ning to the close of the voyage he invariably slept
on deck.

" Can you picture to yourself,'' said he to us one
day, *^ a more horrible situation than that of a ner-

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8 RAMBLES IN

vous man, like myself, retiring to rest within the
narrow limits of a steamer's berth, and finding him-
self gradually outgrowing the size of his wooden
prison, and being saved only from suffocation by the
forcible removal of the bulk-heads/'

We reached Penang on the eighth day firom Cal-
cutta. The entrance to the harbour is very pretty,
and firom the summit of the Penang hill, which rises
immediately in the rear of the town, to an elevation of
nearly two thousand five hundred feet, there is, in
clear weather, a magnificent view of the island, and of
Province Wellesley, whose rich plains may be seen
stretching away for many a mile, till they are lost in
the mountainous range that forms the background of
the picture. The town, as also the whole plain, is at
all times hot, the settlement being so thoroughly
land locked, that the sea breeze never reaches it,
except in one comer, where about half a dozen houses
enjoy the benefit of the breeze.

During the prevalence of the southwest monsoon,
the temperature of the plain averages, we are in-
formed, about 87*" in the shade, whilst the temperature
on the hiU is at aU times from nine to ten degrees
cooler than that of the town. There is, however, at
all seasons a very considerable moisture in the air.
If the invaUd, therefore, expect to find a bracing
climate at Penang, he will be disappointed, for, even
during the coolest months of the year, December,
January, and February, when the thermometer fre-
quently falls to 67°, the atmosphere is always sur-

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 9

charged with moisture, and the hill is frequently
enveloped in mist and fog.

There are several bungalows on the mountains,
partly furnished, which visitors may manage to secure
by giving timely notice ; a residence there, however,
is not unattended with inconvenience, inasmuch as
supplies of every kind must be brought up daily
from the town, a distance of about eight miles. It
has been thought that a good hotel on the Penang
Hill might be found to answer; but we think it
doubtful whether it would meet with sufficient sup-
port to make it remunerative, or that visitors would
be willing to pay at such a high rate as could alone
give to a speculation of the kind, the remotest chance
of success. There is no reason, however, why there
should not be a hotel in the town. At present, there
is no place of the kind, where a gentleman could ven-
ture to shew himself, much less a lady.

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10 lUMBLES IN

CHAPTER II.

AEMVAL AT SINGAPORE — THE NEW HARBOUE — PICTUEESqUE APPEAEANOB
OP THE TOWN AND ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE GOVERNMENT HILL
— HOTEL AND BOARDING-HOUSES^ THEIR CHARACTEfi, STYLE, AND
CHARGES — SINGAPORE PALKIES — ^PUBLIC BALL IN HONOUR OP THE

queen's birthday CLIMATE AND TEMPERATURE OF SINGAPORE —

PUBLIC LIBRARY AND READING-ROOM.

The passage from Penang to Singapore is usually
performed in about forty hours. The entrance to
the new harbour is through an exceedingly narrow
channel ; but as there is at all times an abundance of
water in it, a steamer can pass through at any time.
The only vessels that avail themselves of this channel
are the Oriental Company^s steamers that ply between
Calcutta and China. By adopting this route, these
vessels save, we understand, about sixteen miles of
steaming. Singapore does not look well from the
roads. The best view of the town and the sur-
rounding country is to be had from the summit of
the Government Hill; from this point, there is an
extensive panoramic view, which comprises the whole

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12 RAMBLES IN

monest necessaries of life, the hotel charges cannot
be considered high. The charge for a single person
breakfasting and dining at the pubUc table being one
dollar and a half per diem. The charge for families
and parties occupying a private sittingroom, are
proportionably higher. The only really objectionable
charge in our bill was that for a bath, for which the
proprietor asks half a dollar a day, a demand that is
most unreasonable, seeing that water is abundant, and
close at hand. There is only one boarding house at
Singapore. It is kept by a lady of the name of
Roberts, whose husband is secretary to the govern-
ment. The house is spacious and well situated, and
it possesses this great advantage over the hotel, that
it is comfortably and even elegantly furnished, which
is not the case as regards the latter establishment ;
with every disposition, however, to render her house
agreeable to her diflFerent guests, truth compels us to
say that the excellent lady of this establishment has
hitherto failed to give general satisfaction. The table
arrangements are very defective, a circumstance which
we attribute to its being the practice of this house
to provide wine and beer without making any separate
charge for the same

The charge for board and lodging is the same as
at the hotel — viz., one dollar and a half per diem;
but it must be quite evident that if wine and beer are
included in this charge, it could not be possible to
provide a suitable table. As we have heard a very
high character of Mrs. Roberts from our different

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^'i" tilt. I't •', a ^ tM.a 1 f Ti- ooi .'.*

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 13

friends, and as we should be really glad to hear of
her success, we would suggest for her consideration
that she forthwith discontinue the practice of allowing
wine without an extra payment for the same. By
adopting the plan here suggested, she will be enabled,
we are quite sure, to provide a table superior to any
at Singapore, without having to make any change
whatever in her present scale of charges.

Between the Esplanade and the beach is an
enclosed space, within which all the beauty and
fashion of the place promenade daUy, and enjoy the
cool sea breeze. The scene is enlivened twice during
the week by the regimental band, on which occasions
the old women gather together to talk scandal, and
their daughters to indulge in a little innocent flir-
tation.

The usual kind of carriage in use at Singapore is a
kind of oflice jaun, here called a palki. The Syce runs
at the pony's head, and neither he nor the animal
he guides make anything of a matter of ten miles
right an end, and frequently accompUshed too, within
the hour. These carriages are not particularly easy,
and are only suited, therefore, to Singapore roads,
which, it must be admitted, are super-excellent. The
charge for a pony and palki varies from twenty to
twenty five dollars the month. There are no places
of public report or amusement at Singapore ; neither
is there any society. The merchants, who form by
far the largest section of the community, seem to
look upon money making as the chief end and object

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14 RAMBLES IN

of their lives, and their topics of conversation rarely
extend to any other subject than that of nutmegs or
the last price current.

The chief civil authority, during our stay on the
island, gave a ball and supper in honour of the anni-
versary of the Queen's birthday. We are not par-
ticularly partial to entertainments of this kind ; but
on the occasion in question, our loyal feelings had
determined us to attend. Circumstances, however,
over which we had no control, and which we could
not then foresee, occurred to frustrate this intention.
A valued friend, however, has kindly favoured us
with the following graphic account of the party :

" At ten o'clock on the evening of the 24th, I pro-
ceeded,'' writes our friend, "to the house of the
Resident Councillor. I was amongst the last anivals,
and the ball room was already overflowing with the
numberless guests of the representative of the Go-
vernment. The number of persons present could not
have fallen short of a hundred and fifty ; but as by
far the greater proportion of this number were gen-
tlemen, the ladies had no easy time of it. A sickly
effort had been made to decorate the room with ever-
greens and garden flowers ; but the freshness of the
former had already departed, and the latter hung
their drooping heads, as if bowed down by the weight
of the foul and stagnant air. The rooms were Ughted
up by means of tumblers filled with red oil, the odour
of which, added to the intense heat of the atmosphere
around, was almost insupportable. Being somewhat

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 15

fatigued by the exertion of dancing, and being nearly
overpowered by the increasing heat of the ball room,
I ventured to call for some refreshment, when a ser-
vant brought to me a yellowish looking fluid, which I
was informed was orange wine. Not finding, how-
ever, the acidity of this beverage exactly suited to
the existing state of my stomach, I gladly exchanged
it for the only other beverage obtainable — some luke-
warm tea, in the preparation of which every pre-
caution had been taken to prevent the possibility of
any disturbance occurring to the nervous system of
the drinker.

" About midnight, a general movement was made
in the direction of the supper room. Happily I was
not hungry nor thirsty : but I sufi^ered myself, never-
theless, to be carried away in the general exodus. I
was not hungry, as 1 have said ; but others, doubtless,
were, and it must have been especially disappointing
to those thirty or forty ladies, who had toiled so inde-
fatigably that night in honour of their Queen and old
England, to find that their labours were to receive no
more substantial reward than a dry sandwich or a
Chinese cake, to be washed down the balked palate
by tepid water or acid wine. There was no tempta-
tion to linger over such a banquet, for even had there
been cakes and sandwiches for the whole party,
instead of for only about a third of the company
present, there was not a single chair to be obtained
by lady and gentleman. The vast human tide, there-
fore, that had flowed so rapidly to the supper-

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16 RAMBLES IN

table, so fiill of hopes never to be realized, and
hunger never to be appeased, soon ebbed back
to the ball room, with .even greater velocity than
that which had distinguished its recent downward
course.

" Had this ball,'" proceeds our friend, " been a
private one, given in the common social intercourse
of private life, I should not have deemed myself
justified in commenting thus freely upon it ; but as
it must be regarded in the light of a pubUc enter-
tainment, in the strictest sense of the word, I consider
myself quite at liberty to speak pubUcly concerning
it, and to condemn the entertainment in question as
eminently discreditable to the representative of the
Government, and as utterly unworthy of the occasion
it was designed to commemorate/'

There is one passage in our friend's account which
we have deemed it our duty to suppress, as it tends
to reflect upon the private character of the giver of
this entertainment ; for though we are privileged, we
conceive, to comment upon his public acts, we feel
that we have no possible title to remark upon any-
thing that afl^ects his private life or habits.

The Indian visitor will very soon get tired of Sin-
gapore, for, setting aside the want of society and the
absence of pubUc amusement, the climate is too hot,
and too depressing, to render a residence in this
island agreeable beyond a period of a few weeks.
The average temperature in the town, in a cool house
durins: the southwest monsoon, is 81°. In such a

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 17

climate, the invalid cannot expect to gain strength,
and he may consider himself fortunate if he does not
lose ground. To those vsrho have resided for a
number of years in the damp atmosphere of Bengal,
the climate of the Straits may perhaps be suitable,
and, to a certain extent, beneficial; but we should
never recommend any of our friends who have lived
long in the dry climate of the northwest, to come to
Singapore for change of air. The climate of the
Straits is far too relaxing for those who have been
long accustomed to the dry atmosphere of the Upper
Provinces; and the invalid visitor, if he come from
that quarter of Bengal, will be sure to experience the
same langour and inabiUty for mental and bodily
exertion to which he is so liable in Bengal during the
prevalence of the rains in that country.

Housekeeping at Singapore is expensive and trou-
blesome, and we would advise the Indian visitor,
whether married or unmarried, to take rooms at the
hotel, rather than attempt to keep house for himself
Considering the large European society resident at
Singapore, there seems no reason why supplies of
every kind should not be as abundant there as in
Calcutta ; but, strange to say, no good beef or mutton
is to be had on the island ; a small, skinny, sickly
looking animal, dignified by the name of a Bengal
grain fed sheep, is slaughtered twice a week for the
benefit of those who cannot dispense with their
mutton chop, and is sold at a fixed price of two and
a half dollars the joint. There is always a supply,

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18 RAMBLES IN

however, of good fish in the market, and with that
and Chinese pork, the residents are content ; but our
Indian stomach was not so easily satisfied, and we
frequently yearned for the gyney beef and grain fed
mutton of our Bengal provinces ; we, therefore, deter-
mined to avail ourselves of an opportunity that offered
about this time to visit Java, where we had reason to
believe that the good things of this life were not quite
so circumscribed as at Singapore.

Before taking leave of Singapore, however, we must
not omit to mention that the visitor has one resource
of recreation, for which he is indebted to the Resident
Society. We refer to the public library and reading
room. This institution is well provided with books
of every class and kind, and as both the English and
the Indian newspapers are regularly taken in, there is
no difficulty in keeping oneself "au courant'* with
European and Eastern politics.

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JAVA AND THE STRMTS. l9

CHAPTER IIL

nilPAimTfiE PROM SINGAPORE — THE DUTCH STEAMEH ' JAVA*^— ACCOMIWO-
OATION AND STYLE OF UVINO ON BOAED — THE GOVERNMENT MAfL

AGENT iND HIS BKEDE — ^THE PASSEKGKR WITH ONLY ONE KAE

EHIO — STRAITS OF BAKCA — DETENTION AT MPITOK — RUN OUT OP
COAL — ABEIVAX AT BATAVIA,

On the 1st of June the mail bags from Holland
having been duly transferred from the Oriental Com-
pany's steamer ' Matta' to the Dutch steamer ' Java/
the latter having got up her steam, weighed anchor,
and wath a goodly freight of passengers, ourselves
amongst the number, sailed out of Singapore Roads
on her retuni voyage to Batavia.

The accommodation of the * Java,* though not equal
in point of cleanliness and comfort to the accommoda-
tion of the Peninsular Company's boats, was, never-
theless, far better than we had been led to expect we
should find it. The ' Java' is a fine sea boat of some
five or six hundred tons burden; she was built
several years ago at Glasgow, and plied between

c 2

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20 RAMBLES IN

that port and Liverpool under the name of ' The City
of Glasgow/ She has a fine roomy saloon and eight
cabins, two of which are appropriated as general
berths, and hold eight and six beds respectively.
The ventilation, both in the saloon and the cabins,
is very defective, a remark which may be appUed
with equal truth to most of the boats of the Oriental
Company. The passage from Singapore to Java
usually occupies from three to four days, and the
charge for each person is seventy five dollars, or two
hundred and twenty five Java rupees

The extraordinary hours fixed for the meals (break-
fast being served a little after daylight, and dinner at
half past eleven), the singular style of the cookery,
the motley assemblage by which we were surrounded,
of persons of every colour and creed, and the min-
gling of their various tongues of English, French,
Dutch, Portuguese, Malay, Chinese, and Hindostanee,
all conspired to show that we were in a new world.

There is no situation we know of in which there
exist greater facilities for reading character than on
board ship, and there is no other situation, perhaps,
in which people are so much disposed to be communi-
cative about themselves and their afi^airs. It has been
frequently said that " truth is stranger than fiction,''
and we were never more disposed to concur in the
justness of the remark, than on the occasion of our
present voyage to Java. The writer of romance — ^had
such a character been amongst us — ^would here have
found ample materials for a work of fiction, without

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» ' .' 'Hie wi i. r "I iia', * -uHi"

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 21

having to draw upon the stores of his imagination ;
for in the histories of many of those around him, he
would have found realities fully as heart stirring, and
fiilly as interesting, as even the most fertile imagina-
tion could supply. The sentimental portion of the
world could have been furnished from the somewhat
romantic history of the mail agent and his interesting
bride.

With a paternal solicitude, the wisdom of which
may appear somewhat questionable, it would seem
that the Dutch Government of Java had forbidden the
nuptials of this gentleman, on the ground that he had
not yet obtained that rank in their service which
would enable him suitably to maintain a wife. The
bride, a young lady of colour, who resided with her
parents on the neighbouring island of Rhio, being
anxious to assume the matron's estate, and being an
enemy to long engagements, consented to quit her
parents and her native isle, and accompany her
inamorato to Singapore, where it had been previously
arranged that they should be married under the
auspices of a government which happily exercises
no interference in the matrimonial concerns of its
subjects.

The lovers were married accordingly at Singapore,
and immediately after the ceremony they re-embarked
on board the ^Java," the bridegroom to accompany
his mail bags to Batavia, the bride to return to Rhio,
where twice during the month, though but for a brief
hour only, she may reckon on meeting her husband.

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22 EAMBLES IN

on his passage to and fro with the government
mails.

Amongst the passengers on board, we had observed,
shortly after embarking, one person whose manner
and general appearance had excited in us a curiosity
to learn something of his previous history. This
feeling was heightened, in some measure, by the cir-
cumstance of the party referred to having only one
ear. The individual in question, we remarked had an
abundant supply of long black hair, that furnished
him at once with the means of concealing the de-
ficiency of the organ ; but there was evidently no
desire on his part to disguise from the world that he
had but one ear, for the hair which, if left to itself,
would have spread over the earless region, seemed to
be piu^osely diverted from its course, thus leaving
the space, that is usually occupied by the organ in
question, thoroughly exposed, and as bare as a bar-
ber's block. That man, said we, has had his ear cut
oflF, and we must find out the how, and the when,
and the why. In pursuance of this resolution, we
took an early opportunity of addressing the party
in question.

It was our object to give such a turn to the con-
versation, as might seem best calculated to put us ia
possession of the information we sought. We began,
therefore, by speaking of the wonderful aid that had
lately been given to surgery by the discovery of chlo-
roform ; and we mentioned several extraordinary
surgical operations that had come under our own

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 23

personal observation, and which, but for chloroform,
could never have terminated successfully. We
spoke of legs, and arms, and noses, and even of
ears, having been taken oflF and replaced, without the
patient being in the least degree aware of what was
going on.

Our friend had never witnessed a surgical opera-
tion, he said, and he never wished to do so. We
felt that we were on the. wrong tack, and we shifted
our ground accordingly to Sir Harry Smith and the
war then raging on our eastern frontier at the Cape.
We had remarked upon the well known cruelties,
which the savage tribes of South Africa so fre-
quently practise upon their prisoners, and were
condemning in the Strongest terms the horrible
atrocities that usually mark the progress of barbaric
warfare.

" Not half so bad as the Chinese !'' burst forth the
stranger; ^^they beat any savages I ever heard of.
Do you see this?'' pointing, as he spoke, to the
earless side of his face. " I had once two ears like
everybody else, but I've left one of them in China.
I was master of a nice little schooner in those days,
but one dark night a parcel of those Chinese devils
came and boarded us, set fire to the schooner, mur-
dered the whole of the crew, excepting myself and the
Tindal, and finished the affair by slicing off my right
ear. I saved nothing but the shirt to my back ; but
your government behaved very well, I must say, for
they gave me ten thousand dollars to buy another,

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24 RAMBLES IN

craft and to rig out another ear, if I liked it. I
have got the former, but I don't mind so much
about the latter, for I hear as well as I ever did, and
I don't much care for appearances. This business of
mine," concluded the stranger, in a somewhat mys-
terious tone, " was one of the principal causes of the
war."

But here we are at Rhio, and here are two boat
loads of its inhabitants coming off to welcome the
bride on her safe return to the isle, and to congratu-
late her on the new and dignified position she has just
assumed. There was a deal of hugging and kissing
between the new comers on one side, and the newly
married couple on the other ; these natural emotions
having at length subsided, the islanders, after a brief
interval, rose to take leave. It is difl&cult to say what
the inward feelings of the married pair may have
been, but certainly there was nothing in the manner
of either, or in their mode of parting, that betokened
anything like a sense of unhappiness, or that could
create an impression on the mind of an unconcerned
spectator that their temporary separation was viewed
by either in the light of a trial ; no visible emotion
marked their leave taking. The bridegroom formally
kissed the hand of his bride, and the lady courtesied
in acknowledgment.

The chief product of Rhio is gambir, or catechu, of
which it sends annually to Batavia some twenty or
thirty thousand pikuls. Java was formerly supplied
with this article from Penang and Singapore, but the

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JAVA AND THE STBAITS. 25

Java Government having thought fit to impose an
import duty of twelve rupees per pikul on the article
in question, it was no longer found remunerative to
export it from the Straits, and its cultivation has
since been almost entirely relinquished, both at Singa-
pore and at Penang.

June 1. — Once more under steam, and threading
our way by the Ught of the silvery moon through the
narrow, yet beautiful. Straits of Rhio. On the fol-
lowing day, we entered the Straits of Banca, and at
day light on the 3rd, we anchored oflF " Mintok/'
Here, owing to some unaccountable bungling on the
part of either the captain or the agents at Singapore,
we were obliged to take in coal, and were detained in
consequence at the anchorage ground during an entire
day. The coaling might have been eflFected in three
or four hours, had the authorities on shore been
disposed to exert themselves ; but the Resident, it
seemed, owed the captain a grudge, and he availed
himself of the opportunity to pay him off, by throwing
every possible difficulty in the way of his getting the
coal on board. Though we took in only fifteen
tons of coal, it occupied as many hours before the
whole was shipped. The wilful and needless
detention of the public mails for an entire
day by a public servant of any other government
but that of the phlegmatic Dutch, would probably
have cost such servant his appointment, and very
justly so.

Mintok is a miserable looking place; but its ex-

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26 BAMBLES IN

tensive tin mines are a valuable source of revenue to
the State, yielding yearly, it is said, about fifty
thousand pikuls of the metal The mines are worked
almost exclusively by Chinese, who receive nine rupees
for every pikul of metal they deUver at the govern-
ment stores. Nothing whatever grows at Mintok,
and the island is dependent on Batavia for suppUes of
every kind.

The island of Banca is one hundred and thirty
miles in length, and the average breadth may be
stated at about thirty six. There is no continuous
mountainous range in any part of it ; but there are
several unconnected hills, the highest of which is the
Goonong Maras, which rises to a height of more than
three thousand feet. According to a census taken
when the island belonged to the British, the popu-
lation of the whole island amounted at that period to
13,413 souls. The seasons are pretty much the same
as at Java, being divided into dry and wet; the
former commencing in May and ending in October,
and the latter commencing in November and ending
in AprU.

Passing through the Straits of Banca, we emerged,
on the morning of the 4th, upon the Java sea.
Hitherto, we had had fine weather and quiet saihng ;
now, however, we began to feel that we were really
at sea, as our little steamer bobbed up and down
under the influence of a strong southeasterly swell ;
but even the most fainthearted of the party took
courage on being assured that in less than twenty

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 27

hours our anchor would be dropped in Batavia Roads.
There is no certainty, however, in anything that is
human, and steam forms no exception to the general
rule.

At 2 A.M., on the morning of the fifth of June, it
was reported to the captain by the engineer that the
coal was all expended. The captain lost his temper :
most captains, perhaps, would have done the same.
The passengers, of whom several were already on
deck, looked uneasy, and some became suddenly sea-
sick. In this posture of afi^airs, the engineer sug-
gested the expediency of keeping up the steam as
long as possible, by means of such articles as could
be converted into fuel, such as any spare spars, and
the like. " Spars, of course, cut up all the spars, and
yourself along with them," growled the skipper, who
was still in a great passion, and would have it that it
must be the fault of the engineer that " Borneo coals
were not as good as Newcastle.''

By 5 A.M., all the available spars, including the
mizen top mast, sundry tar barrels, and a quantity of
old cordage, had been cut up to feed the engine, and
our rate of progress had fallen to two knots the hour.
We were still thirty miles from the Roads, and an
ugly looking squall was coming down upon us fast
from the south east. It was happily not of long
duration, or very violent ; but it was heavy enough
to stop the engine. What's to be done now ? was
the general inquiry. There were several small islands
in sight, the nearest of which, the captain seemed to

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28 RAMBLES IN

think, he might contrive to reach before we were
entirely out of fuel. Here it was proposed to anchor,
sending all hands ashore to collect green fuel, by the
aid of which it was hoped we might reach the ship-
ping before nightfall. As the engines still continued
to work, however, when we came abreast of this
island, it was thought better to continue our course,
more particularly as the steamer's smoke must now
be plainly discernible from the Roads. Accordingly,
at a rate that had now dwindled down to a knot and
a half, we continued to crawl along ; when all at
once, at eleven miles from Batavia, we came to a
dead stand. We were now too far oflF from any of
the islands above referred to, to carry out the original
plan of collecting firewood therefrom, and we were
still too far out to signal any of the ships in harbour.
Our chance of getting into port that day seemed to
rest, therefore, on the somewhat doubtful contingency
of our smoke having been perceived by the flag ship,
and the yet remoter chance of a government steamer
being dispatched to our aid. But when matters
come to the worst, they generally mend; and so
it was with the * Java.' About mid day, a slant
of wind sprang up upon our larboard quarter,
which just enabled us to make headway; and by
five o'clock in the evening we were at anchor, though
at a distance of three good miles from the head of the
canal.

This was not the first time in our life that our
travels had been interrupted by the failure of fuel.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 29

We were travelling some years ago by rail between
Naples and Castelamare, when the train came sud-
denly to a dead stand about three miles from the
former city. On inquiring the cause of a fellow pas-
senger, he repUed, in a tone of complete indifference,
and as if it were a matter of common occurrence,
" Si manca il fuoco, Signore/'

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30 BAMBLES IN

CHAPTER IV.

BATAVIA, APPROACH — INSALUBRITY — HOTELS IN JAVA — ^DUTCH COOKERY

-;-PLACES OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT MODE OF LIFE AT BATAVIA

EUROPEAN PORTION OF THE TOWN, COMPARATIVE SALUBRITY — SIN-
GULAR STYLE OF DRESS OF THE BATAVIAN LADIES — MORNING COSTUME
OF THE GENTLEMEN — JAVA WASHERMEN.

The approach to Batavia is cheerless in the ex-
treme. The town is situated amid a low marshy
jungle, the very hot bed of malaria ; and as the ships
lie out at a considerable distance from the shore, in
order to escape the ill eflFects of the baneful land-
wind, landing is at all times a tedious affair. The
town is reached by a canal, which flows through it,
and for several miles into the interior of the country.
The climate of Batavia, as is well known, has always
proved most deadly to the European constitution;
and even at the present day, it is only the native
portion of the community that can remain in the
town with impunity after night fall. The European
population reside entirely in the country, at a dis-

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 31

tance of three or four miles from the town ; and the
merchants and others who have business to transact,
go up to their offices daily at an early hour of the
morning, and by three o'clock in the afternoon all
business has ceased, and every office in Batavia is
closed.

We did not reach our hotel till nearly nine o'clock
at night, having had the usual amount of trouble at
the Custom House tiiat fells to the lot of those who
are strangers in the land, and are unacquainted with
the language of the people.

It is difficult to say which is the best hotel at a
place where all are bad. We were advised to reside
at The Rotterdamsche ; but we should have done
better, as we subsequently discovered, had we selected
the Hotel der Nederlanden. Considering the very
large number of English residents at Batavia, and the
constant influx of English visitors from . different
quarters of the globe, it is strange there should be
no hotel of a purely English character ; but the whole
are essentially Dutch ; and the English visitor, there-
fore, so long as he may reside in Java, must learn
to live like a Dutchman, or he will chance to die of
starvation. He must take his breakfast at 6 a.m., or
not at all. He must prepare to dine at noon. If it
be his principle " when at Rome to do as the Romans
do," he will then go to bed for an hour or two, take
a cup of tea on rising, and dress for the day about
five o'clock in the afternoon; he will then be ready
for a second dinner at eight o'clock; and from that

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hour until midnight, he may amuse himself at the
billiard table, or if he prefer society, he may pay his
^^ devoirs" to some of the many fair ladies of Ba-
tavia.

Carnages and horses are kept at all the hotels in
the metropolis, and form by no means an unimportant
part of the establishment. The carriages are all of a
uniform description, being a small phaeton drawn
by two ponies. The coachman and the Syces wear
the livery of the hotel to which they belong. These
vehicles look extremely neat ; but we think it would
be a toss up between them and the Calcutta kranchie
as to which was the roughest vehicle of the two.
They are precisely the kind of carriage into which we
should put a man who had been bitten by a snake,
for if anything human could keep him awake, it
would be a Java pony phaeton. Very few of the
Java carriages have lamps, the custom being for the
Syce to stand at night upon the hind part of the
carriage, with a large torch as long as himself, which
does the duty of a pair of lamps. The objection to
this plan is, that on a windy night, the inside of the
carriage receives quite as much of the smoke of the
flambeau as the outside. The charge for the hotel
phaetons, like everything else indeed in Java, is
regulated by Government. The cost of a carriage
for one day is six rupees, and for half a day three
rupees.

The hotel charges are the same all over Java, being
five rupees for each person per diem, or £3 12s. of

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 33

our Calcutta currency. Wines and beer maintain
about the same prices as in India. Dutch cooking
would never suit an EngUsh stomach ; it is not; only
not wholesome, but it is even worse, it is disgusting,
the predominating features of it being acids and
rancid butter. In every Dutch dish there is a dis-
agreeable excess of these adjuncts. Another curious
feature connected with it is, that, with the exception
of the soup, which is served up upon the boil, the rest
of the dinner is allowed to become quite cold before
it is eaten ; the amount of caloric that is necessarily
dijBFused over the coats of the stomach, through the
introduction of the former, renders it expedient, we
were told, that the temperature of the other dishes
should be proportionably lowered; accordingly, the
whole of the viands are invariably set out on the
table about half an hour before the dinner is an-
nounced, in open flat dishes, in order that they may
have time to cool before they are handed round.
There are no separate courses at a Dutch dinner, the
whole meal, including the desert, being displayed at
once upon the table, so that, on taking his seat, a
person may literally be said to see his dinner.

In their mode of eating, the Dutch have never
studied refinement; and even at the table of the
highest in the land, it is customaiy for persons of
either sex to employ their knives on offices which
with us are usually performed with the spoon or fork.
'^The use of a butterknife t>r a saltspoon is unknown
in Java ; and even at the Governor General's table,

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these useful appurtenances of the dhiner table are
not deemed necessary.

The Batavians are very fond of gaiety, and strive
to forget the depressing eflFects of the climate in the
indulgence of one continued round of balls and din-
ner parties. The opera (French) is a very passable
one; we were there on a benefit night, and heard
Halevy's, "La Juive/' a difficult selection, but to
which the company, we thought, did very fair
justice.

The part of Batavia occupied by the Europeans is
pleasing enough, and is not unlike one of our prettiest
and most verdant Bengal stations. The houses are
mostly tiled, and have glass windows, and in other
respects are well suited to the cUmate. The mornings
and evenings at Batavia are considerably cooler than
at Singapore ; but in the middle of the day there is
no perceptible difference in the temperature of the
two places. There are no fine public buildings either
within or without the town. The palace is scarcely
deserving of the name. The Society House is in a
good situation, and is perhaps the most imposing-
looking structure at the place. One of the most
singular looking buildings is the Dutch church, of
which a sketch is annexed. The King's Plain looks
pleasant enough, with its numerous cheerful villas on
all sides of it. In the centre of Waterloo Plain is a
plain round column, having the figure of a lion upon
the top, which was raised in commemoration of the
victory at Waterloo. The pillar is a contemptible

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 35

affair, and unworthy of the event it is intended to
commemorate.

The Batavian ladies dress writh taste, when they do
dress; but this necessary operation is seldom per-
formed until a very late hour of the day. The
morning dress of a Batavian lady consists merely of a
pair of wide silk trousers, or a coloured Malay petti-
coat, and Uiat iudis[>ensable upper garment termed a
shift ; the naked feet are then carelessly thrust into
a pair of Chinese slippers, and in this guise, with their
hair uncombed and floating down their backs, scores
of ladies may be seen evei7 day of the week driving
along the public road, or walking before their houses
in familiar conversation with their friends of either
sex. We never once remarked anything like con-
fusion or awkwardness on the part of any lady on
being encountered so dressed, or rather so un-
dressed, ^

On the first morning after our arrival, we came
suddenly upon a lady thus habited. She was pro-
ceeding across the quadrangle of the hotel to the
bath room, followed by a female ser\ant, bearing
towels and certain other *^et ceteras" that are used
by ladies wheu performing their ablutions. There
was no escape for ourselves or the lady ; but though
somewhat disconcerted ourselves, we were surprised
to find that the lady looked wholly unconcerned. We
were afterwards told that bad we studied Batavian
etiquette, we should have taken off our hats to the
lady on passing her. But it is not only by an inde-

D 2

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cent display of their persons that the Dutch ladies
evince their disregard for deUcacy and propriety :
they are also complete strangers, in our humble
opinion, to that innate good breeding, and that
natural good taste, which are so characteristic of the
sex in England.

All ladies have an innate love for dress, and it is a
subject upon which the fair sex in every country
under the sun consider themselves to be the best
judges ; and our own fair countrywomen form no
exception to the general rule, though they rarely
suffer this amiable weakness to betray them into a
breach of etiquette or good manners ; but it is very
different in Java. Let a Dutch lady see a dress or
an ornament she has never seen before, and she will
not rest until she has made herself mistress of its
history. It is a favourite phrase with the Dutch
ladies, and one that they are constantly making use
of, when their fancy happens to be taken wdth a
handsome dress or a pretty ornament— " Madame,
you are very fine to-night ; allow me to look at your
dress." The unfortunate wearer of the envied gar-
ment, or ornament, even though she may be a perfect
stranger, is then subjected to a deal of rough handling,
and has to reply to a series of impertinent queries
touching the price and manufacture of the article in
question, ere she is left at liberty to employ herself in
a more profitable and more agreeable manner.

But if the ladies are deficient in delicacy, the gen-
tlemen are complete strangers to the feeling. It is

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 37

a common sight at the leading hotels of the capital,
to see a gentleman sitting, in the middle of the day,
in his night dress in the public verandah of the hotel,
undergoing the process of shaving, or performing
certain ablutions which more properly belong to the
bath room. As we now write, there are sitting in
front of our windows, and not thirty yards from the
door of our apartment, two Dutch gentlemen, the
one in sky blue drawers and a shirt, the other in
slate coloured drawers, but with no shirt ; the former
is solacing himself with a cheroot, whilst his companion
is apparently engaged in qualifying for the ofl&ce of a
chiropodist.

If there is one class of persons more than another
in Java, against whom we have cause to entertain
feelings of hostility, that class is the washermen. We
arrived on the island with a perfectly new wardrobe :
we left it with scarcely a sound garment. We could
pardon, perhaps, the natural indolence which some-
times induces this class of servants to refuse to wash
for you on any terms ; but we cannot so readily over-
look that peculiar feature in the character of the
Javanese Dhobi, which leads him to beat all your
garments into shreds for the mere love of the thing.
One of their most objectionable practices is to starch
your shirts to such a degree, that, even if you have
the good fortune to find your way into one of them,
every movement you may make is attended with the
greatest personal discomfort. On remonstrating with
our washerman against this abominable custom, we

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were told that the gentlemen all over Java wore their
shirts stiffly starched, as this garment was seldom
worn inside of the trowsers, except of an evening.
As this statement was corroborated by what we had
already observed ourselves, we could say nothing
further on the subject, and yielded the point accord-
ingly.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 39

CHAPTER V.

TRAVELLINO IN JAVA — CX)ST OF POST-HOESES — HOW PROCURABLE — ^PRICB
OF A TRAVELLING-CARRIAGE — LEAVE BATAVIA — THE BENGAL AYAH

DINNER AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE — THE AUTHOR TARES A WALK,

WHICH PROVES A SOMEWHAT LONGER ONE THAN HE HAD RECKONED
ON — THE BOTAiaCAL GARDENS AT BUH^ENZORG.

Travelling in Java is very expensive, the average
cost per mile being two Java rupees, or one rupee
eight anas of our Calcutta currency- The roads are
excellent, as are the horses also, the actual travelling
pace of the latter being upwards of ten miles an hour.
Post horses are only obtainable by application to the
Government, whose sanction must be first procured
ere the visitor will be permitted to quit the capitaL
The usual step on arriving at Bataviaj is for the
stranger to submit a petition to the Governor
General, praying for permission to visit the interior.
It is a troublesome form, but it is one that must be
observed. Sanction is given, as a matter of course,
unless, indeed, some special cause should exist for its

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40 RAMBLES IN

being withheld. The appUcant then receives a pass-
port, which holds good for a twelvemonth, and for
which he has to pay the cost of the stamp, only two
and a half rupees.

Post horses are maintained upon only two lines of
road — ^viz., Marshal Dandael's famous coast road,
which traverses the entire length of the island, from
Anjer on the west coast to Banjoewangie at the
eastern extremity of the island, a distance of more
than eight hundred miles ; and upon the post road,
which connects the northern and southern coasts, and
traverses the native States of Djojokerta and Solo-
kerta.

Upon the other lines of road, and there are several
that intersect the interior in every direction, horses
are only obtainable by favour, or through the official
influence of the district authorities. Before the for-
mation of Marshal Dandael's great road, the commu-
nication between the capital and the eastern districts
was necessarily very uncertain, being chiefly main-
tained by small coasters. The construction of this
splendid highway, therefore, though it is said to have
cost the lives of some twenty thousand persons, has
proved of inestimable advantage to the island, par-
ticularly in •those times when steamers were as yet
unknowToi, and the power of steam, as a means of
locomotion, was only a theory, by enabling the Go-
vernment to communicate at all times of the year
with its most distant provinces, in the short space of
three or four days.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 41

The visitor will find little difl&culty in providing
himself vsrith a travelling carriage ; every description
of vehicle being procurable at Batavia, from the well-
padded britzka, down to the island built char-^-banc.
The traveller may either purchase, or he may hire ;
which of the two modes may be the preferable one,
will depend, of course, on circumstances, and should
be determined by the probable length or duration of
the traveller's tour. As it was our intention to travel
for a period of three or four months, we deemed it
the most economical plan to purchase, and we were
fortunate enough to meet with a first rate britzka,
formerly the property of His Grace the Duke of
Devonshire, and fitted up writh every possible con-
venience for travelling. We paid for this carriage
£53 only, and after using it during two months, we
sold it again at a loss of only £10. Had we hired a
carriage for the trip, it would have cost us three hun-
di-ed Java rupees, or about £22 10s.

On the morning of the 9th of June, we found our-
selves seated behind four neat little posters, who
whisked us out of the yard of the ^ Rotterdamsche' at
a pace that promised to bring us to Buitenzorg within
the four hours which are usually allowed for reaching
that place. The Java ponies seemed to think nothing
of our heavily laden carriage, as they galloped up and
down hill at the uniform rate of ten miles an hour.

There was something so exhilirating in the rapid
pace^ and the mountain air seemed so pure and fresh,
that we already felt better than we had done for

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42 RAMBLES IN

months. The Bengal Ayah alone, who sat crouching
in a remote comer of the roomy coachbox, seemed
unable to participate in these feelings, though she
was riding, for the first time in her life, upon a
duke's carriage ; though the scenery was highly pic-
turesque, and the weather delightful, and though
strange scenes and objects were presented constantly
to her view, still they failed to excite in her the
slightest emotion. Her uninstructed mind appeared
to take everything as a matter of course ; and as she
vacantly stared with her solitary optic upon the
many lovely scenes around her, we thought we had
seldom seen amongst God's creatures so hideous an
object as this one eyed female.

About a mile from Buitenzorg the traveller passes
a plain stone pillar, erected in the centre of the road ;
there is the figure of a lion in the middle of the pillar.
(The Dutch seem to have an especial fondness for this
animal.) This monument is not commemorative of
any event, we find, but was merely placed where it is,
because it was thought it would look well. Exactly
facing the pillar, about half a mile fruther on, stand
the gates of the principal entrance to the park and
palace of the Governor General. The road skirts the
western side of the grounds for several hundred
yards, when an abrupt turn to the right brings the
traveller directly upon the gate of the ^ Belle Vue
Hotel.' For the first time since quitting Batavia, a
ray of intelligence seemed now to light up the coun-
tenance of the one eyed Ayah ; but this expression

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 43

soon chan^red to one of gloom and disappointment^
when she discovered that at Buitenzorg-^ as well as at
Batavia, her mother tongue was equally unintelli-
gible to the people around her.

The hotels in the interior are all under the control
of Government^ and the hotel keeper of every esta-
blishment is required^ we understand^ to keep a
daily register of the visitors^ and of their attendants,
and to submit the same periodically, for the informa-
tion of Government, through the chief civil authority
of the district. This may account^ perhaps, for our
being asked, very shortly after our arrival at Buiten-
zorg, by the party in charge of the hotels whether the
tall, gaunt woman who had come with us was of the
masculine or of the feminine sex. The opinions of
some Dutch gentlemen^, w^ho were then in the hotel,
having been previously taken on the question, it liad
been ruled unanimously, we w^ere told, that she was
too ugly by far to belong to the gentler sex.

Being charged with certain credentials for the
Secretary to Government, certifying that we were
the party we represented ourselves to be, and setting
forth the object of our present visit to Java, we lost
no time in waiting upon this functional^. We w^ere
received by the Secretai^ with infinite politeness, and
were informed that every facility w^ould be afforded
us in furtherance of our wish to visit the interior of
the country.

In the course of the same morning we received for
ourselves and lady, an invitation to dhie at Govern-

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ment House in the evening ; accordingly, at the hour
named in the card, we presented ourselves at the
palace. We found the company all standing, the
ladies being ranged on one side of the room, and the
gentlemen on the other ; presently a door was opened
from the further end of the reception room, and the
Governor General and his lady walked slowly down
the hall. The ladies and gentlemen immediately
fell back, the former courtesying, and the latter
bowing, as their Excellencies passed through the
line. The Secretary then came forward and for-
mally presented ourselves and lady to our host and
hostess.

At dinner we had the honour of being placed next
to the Governor's lady, " vis-k-vis" to our own lady,
who occupied the Governor's left. The conversation
was carried on partly in Dutch, and partly in French.
His Excellency seemed rather shy of speaking
English, though he seemed to possess a very fair
knowledge of that language. The dinner was, of
course, in the true Dutch style ; a profusion of small
dishes, with their usual characteristics, acids and
salt butter, followed by bonbons, barleysugar, and
sugar plums. The wines, of which there was a
great variety, were excellent; but our English taste
would have preferred the wholesome solids of
an English meal, and we did but poor justice, we
fear, to the best dinner, perhaps, we shall see in
Java.

The gentlemen do not sit after dinner in Java, but

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JAVA AND TME STRATTS. 45

adopting the continental fashionj they leave the tables
along: with the ladies- We had forgotten for the
moment that we were dining with foreigners, and
were rather disconcerted to find onrselves stanfhns:
alone at the deserted dinner table, the last of the
company having already paired off and proceeded to
the drawing room ; by dint^ however, of a few rapid
strides, we contrived to reach the lady whom w^e had
taken into dinner, before she had gained the drawing
room, when, hastily apologizing for our apparent
rudeness, w^e gave her our arm to conduct her to the
Reception IlalL

On reaching this apartment, the whole company
formed line, with all the gravity and precision of a
regiment under review;, the ladies on one side and the
gentlemen on the other ; each lady then made a pro-
found courtesy to the gentleman opposite to her,
which was acknowledged on the part of the latter by
an equally profound bow- This ceremony having
been gone through, the laches withdrew^ to the draw-
ing rooms, when cigars were handed round to his
Excellency and his different guests, and in a few
minutes the marble hall was reeking with the fiimes
of tobacco smoke. We are no smokers, and never
w^ere, so we joined the ladies. In the coui'se of the
evening, we were requested to join the Governor
General's whist table ; but we dechned the honour,
preferring the charms of the music room to the less
agreeable recreation of a game at whists We were
much pleased with our reception at Government

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46 BAMBLES IN

House; both the Governor and his lady showed us
much attention during the evening, and seemed to
study how they might make themselves most agree-
able to us.

His Excellency is particularly courteous, and his
manner we thought very pleasing and well-bred. To
our English ideas, he might seem a little too exacting,
perhaps, and we should have been better pleased
to have found less ceremonious formality upon an
occasion which was one purely of a private cha-
racter.

Madame du Mayer Van Twist, though not pretty,
has a most pleasing expression of countenance,
and does the honours of her position with infinite
grace.

We were joined at the hotel, two days after our
arrival at Buitenzorg, by two Indian friends, who,
like ourselves, had come to Java in quest of health.
We had strolled out one evening with these gen-
tlemen for a short walk, as we thought, in the
environs of the village, when we were unexpectedly
overtaken by one of those sudden thunder storms
which are peculiar to the climate of this place. We
had for some time been walking, as we imagined, in
the direction of the hotel, and though the charms of
the walk had been effectually destroyed by the storm
that was now raging around us, still we were all com-
forted by the feeling that in a very few minutes we
should be under shelter. Thus assured, we continued
to walk on through the torrents of rain that were

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JAVA AND THE STUAITS. 47

now descending upon us. At length, as night began
to fall, and as neither on our right hand nor on
our left, nor immediately in front of us, could we
distinguish anything that seemed to indicate the
proximity of a populous village, it occurred to us for
the first time that we were not upon the road to Bui-
tenzorg. None of the party could speak a word of
Malay, and it was not likely that any of the peasants
whom we might meet upon the road could speak any
other language. We, therefore, merely repeated the '
word '" Buitenzorg," as we earnestly mquired of each
passer by whether we were on the road to that vil-
lage. " Ya, ya," was the invariable answer we got,
reiterated, too, in so decided a tone, as to leave little
doubt on our minds that we were pursuing the right
direction.

On we went, therefore, in spite of the mile stones,
which plainly indicated that each onward step we
took was only leading us further away from the
place of which we were in quest. Foolishly , however,
distrusting those silent counsellors, and relying with a
blind confidence on the " ya ya" of the Malay peasant,
we still walked on. At length we secured a guide
fi^oni a hovel at the roadside, and endeavoured by
signs and other expedients to make him understand
that we mshed to get to Buitenzorg. Under this
man's guidance, we continued to walk for about two
miles fiirther, in the heaviest rain to wliich we have
almost ever been exposed. When, at length, we had
the happiness to distinguish lights, we shortly after-

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48 BAMBLES IN

wards entered a village, and were taken to the house
of a Dutch gentleman, who informed us that we
were at Grimagah, a village distant some seven
miles from Buitenzorg. He likewise told us that
the Malays did not know the latter place under
the name of Buitenzorg, but that they called it
Bogor.

Our Dutch friend was polite enough to oflFer us his
carriage and horses to convey us back to the hotel,
and while these were getting ready, he insisted on
each of us taking a strong glass of hot brandy and
water, to obviate any possible ill effects from the
drenching rain, to which we had been so long ex-
posed. We reached the hotel at nine o'clock, but
far too late for our friends to avail themselves of an
invitation they had received and accepted, to dine that
evening at Government House.

The chmate of Buitenzorg, though infinitely pre-
ferable to that of Batavia, is still too damp to be
altogether agreeable. The mornings and evenings,
however, are very delightful ; and with a temperature
frequently down to 75<>, one can take a walk or ride
of some miles with real enjoyment. The thermo-
meter usually rises to 79® or 80** at noon, but falls
again in the afternoon, when there is generally a
shower of rain, which lasts from one to three
hours.

The Botanical Gardens are very extensive, and are
kept up by Government at a considerable expense.
They are chiefly remarkable for the choice collection

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 49

of rare shrubs they contam. We were much dis-
appointed, however, in the collection of flowers, of
which there was but a very indifl^erent display.

The hotel is well situated near the village, and
commands a fine view of the Salok and Simoet moun-
tains, which rise to the south and southwest of
Buitenzorg.

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50 EAMfiLES IN

CHAPTER VI.

LEAVE BUrrENZOBG JAVA POSTING ASCEND THE MBOAMENDON — ^VIEW

FEOM THE TOP OP THE PASS TJIPANAS — BEACH TJANJOBE — HOTEL
AT THAT PLACE— CEOSS THE TJEETAEAM, AND ABBTVE AT BANDONO
THE MONTPELIEE OP JAVA.

June 18. — "All ready. Sir!" screamed our Malay
courier ; crack, crack, go the several whips of coach-
man and Syces, and away spring the ponies at fiill
gallop, up and down hill, it's all the same to them ;
the pace is too rapid to admit of their feeling the
ascents, no matter how steep. Why, by all that's
marvellous, here we are at the post station, and only
twenty seven minutes doing the six miles from Buit-
enzorg ! If this be the usual rate of travelling on the
island, there is Uttle grass can grow beneath the hoof
of a Java pony. What a glorious morning we have,
too ; how fresh and pure the air, and how deUcious
the fragrance of the coimtless wild flowers that adorn
the road side banks, scenting the air with a perfume

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JAVA a:nd the straits. 61

which reminds one of the syringa of our English
gardens. Then what a glorious scene lies before us ;
immediately in front is the richly wooded Megamen-
don, over which, some four hours hence, our carriage
will pass, at an elevation of four thousand three hun-
dred feet above the sea.

A little to the right, and already enveloped in mist,
rises the lofty Simoet. On the extreme left, and
occasionally displaying its crest through the white
fleecy clouds that are sporting upon its summit,
stands the noble Salok, at an elevation of seven
thousand feet. Beneath us, and now gradually re-
ceding from view, are the many picturesque, though
low hills, which almost encircle the town of Buiten-
zorg ; and far, far away, and for many a mile, stretch
the verdant plains which he betwixt the districts of
Buitenzorg and Batavia.

The stages are not long, averaging from five to six
miles; but they are quite long enough, considering
the whole distance is done at the gallop. At each
post, an open shed with verandahs on either side of
it, is built across the road. Under this shed the
operation of changing horses is efl^ected ; and whilst
this is going forward, the traveller will probably
have not failed to observe that the considerate soli-
citude of the Government for the passengers' comfort
does not end here, but that other buildings have also
been constructed by it, even more conducive to the
travellers' comfort than the one already noticed.

At Tjiserooa the road becomes too steep and too

£ 2

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52 RAMBLES IN

stony for horses only, and from this point, and until
the summit of the Megamendon is attained, it is usual
to employ buffaloes to aid the horses in the ascent —
two, three, or four pairs at a time, according to cir-
cumstances.

The view of the Prianger districts from the summit
of the pass is magnificent. We had had a smart
shower of rain before reaching the top, but it cleared
just in time to give us a splendid prospect of the
plains below us. A descent of about a thousand feet
bring the traveller to Tjipanas ; here there is a private
bungalow belonging to the Governor General, a small
botanical garden, and some hot springs. A further
descent of two thousand feet, and the traveller
reaches Tjanjore, the head quarters of the Resident
or chief civil authority of the Priangen.

The village is prettily situated, and it has an air of
cleanliness and comfort about it, which we may look
for in vain in any of the villages of continental India.
The hotel is not well situated, and has a very gloomy
look ; the bed rooms, too, are dirty and ill ventilated ;
the dinner was quite in character, and was imeatable ;
the only object that one could look upon with any-
thing like complacency, was the good humoured face
of the Dutch landlady. She could speak a Uttle
English, she told us, but this little was scarcely
enough to admit of a conversation being long main-
tained, being Hmited to this : " very ;'' " how d'ye
do ;" " yes \' " no ;" and '* good morning.'*

We were not sorry to emerge from the gates of

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 63

this gloomy caravansery at an early hour on the fol-
lowing morning in progress to Bandong, where it
was our intention to sojourn some considerable time,
in order to enjoy its far famed climate, and to see the
lions of that highly favoured neighbourhood. The
distance from Tjanjore is forty two English miles,
and is usually performed in six hours. The road
runs through a most picturesque part of the country,
and in several places it is necessai^ to employ buf-
faloes, as on the previous day, to drag the carriage up
the steeper hills.

About fifteen miles from Tjanjore, an exceedingly
abrupt descent brings the traveller to a tributary of
the Tjeetaram ; the inclination of the road is here so
great, that it is necessary to attach a treck tow, or
leathern rope, to the hind part of the carriage, upon
which a strong pull is maintained by some twenty or
thirty Coolies, in order to prevent too rapid a descent
of the carriage do^vn the hill. The approach to this
stream is vei^ beautiful, but the view in the descent
to the river itself is still more beautifuL The river
is crossed by a punt without trouble or delay ; and
immediately on gaining the opposite side, four power-
ful buffaloes are yoked to the carriage^ which in the
course of a few minutes is safely transported to the
top of the opposite bank.

We consider this ascent fi'om the Tjeetaram to be
the only really dangerous part of the road between
Batavia and Bandong ; and the most courageous per-
son mighty perhaps, be pardoned for feeling somewhat

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54 RAMBIiES IN

nervous whilst engaged in travelling up it, feeling as
he must do, that his safety, and even his life, are
dependant for a few minutes upon the strength of a
piece of untanned buffalo's hide. The last sixteen
miles into Bandong are over a comparatively level
road; buffaloes are no longer needed, and away
spring the Java ponies at their customary pace,
bringing the traveller to the door of the hotel in a
few minutes over the hour.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 65

CHAPTER VIL

BANDONG, NEAT AND CLEANLY APPEARANCE OP — ^JAVANESE HATS — SHOPS

SEATING BOOTHS — ^VIEW OP BANDONG PBOM THE OUTSKIRTS OP THE

VILLAGE — MR, L *S TEA PLANTATION — ^NATURE OP HIS CON-
TRACT "WITH THE GOVERNMENT — VISIT THE WATERPALL— OUR LAND-
LADY — ^A CURIOUS PASSAGE IN HER CURIOUS HISTORY — CONVERSA-
TION AT THE TABLE D*H&TE — THE UPAS TREE.

JuNB 22. — Drove for an hour through the streets
and envu-ons of Bandong, and returned home with a
tolerably accurate notion of a Javanese village.

Bandong, though not so extensive a place as
Tjanjore, is still a large and populous place; and
the inhabitants wear about them an air of comfort
and contentment, that furnishes the best evidence of
the thriving condition of the village. Bandong is
very neatly laid out, the several streets intersecting
each other at right angles; the houses are chiefly
tiled, and being constructed upon a uniform plan,
have a very neat and pleasing appearance. The roads
are wide and well kept, and the different shops, with

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66 RAMBLES IN

their varied contents, present to the unaccustomed
eye of the stranger a sight that is as interesting as it
is novel. On one side you may see a choice collec-
tion of Javanese hats of all colours and sizes, varying
in diameter from one foot and a half to three feet,
but all having the usual characteristic shape of an
inverted washing basin. These curiously shaped
hats are constructed of bamboo, the outside being
covered with a thick coatmg of varnish, that renders
them quite impervious to the rain. The wearer of a
Javanese hat, therefore, needs no umbrella.

The drapers' shops are not less attractive, with
their endless variety of chintzes and dyed cottons,
amongst which the most prominent colours are blue
and scarlet ; but, perhaps, to the eye of a stranger
the most curious and interesting of all are the Java-
nese eating booths. Here, amid the varied display of
savoury viands which assail the senses, the most
fastidious taste may chance to be suited ; here, for a
few pice only, the traveller may dine on kabobed
meats and curry, roasted Indian corn, and risoUes of
coloured rice, with vegetables, fruits, pickles, and
sweetmeats ; if he would have fish besides, he must
be content to eat it putrid, as the Javanese prefer it
in that state.

The environs of the village are almost exclusively
occupied by coflFee gardens, each plantation being
fenced in with a closely cut hedge of the scarlet hi-
biscus, which here grows in the greatest luxuriance.
It is not until one has fairly left the village and

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 67

ascended one or other of the heights above Bandong,
that a good view of the village is obtained. At an
elevation of a few hundred feet above the town, the
traveller vnll be rewarded, if the weather be clear,
with a fine panoramic view of the surrounding hills,
and of the rich valley below him, in the centre of
which he vnll see the village embosomed in its
numerous coffee gardens, and luxuriant with a per-
petual verdure.

Made the acquaintance of Mr. L , a gentleman

resident in this neighbourhood. This gentleman was
formerly in the service of Government, and held the
situation of Resident in one of the eastern districts of
the island; this appointment, however, he resigned
some years ago, preferring the independent position of
a private country gentleman to the highest official
post under Government.

Mr. L. owns one of the most lucrative tea planta-
tions in Java, and the property, we understand, is
increasing yearly in value. He holds a certain num-
ber of acres from Government, under a contract to
supply yearly to the State at fixed prices, as much tea
as his land may be found capable of producing. This

is only the third year of the contract, and Mr. L

has akeady under cultivation three hundred and fifty
baos* of land, the gross yield of which may be esti-
mated at two hundred thousand pounds. The average
price per pound that the contractor receives for the

* The bao is somewhat larger than the English acre.

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58 BAMBLES IN

several descriptions of teas, is seventy-five cents, or
about one shilling and a halfpenny of our English
currency, whilst the actual expense to him scarcely
exceeds a half of this sum ; the net profit, therefore,
to the contractor, in this the third year of his contract,
may be estimated at about £6250 sterling. The
number of labourers, chiefly Javanese, at present
employed upon the property, is upwards of one
thousand seven hundred ; but this number will, of
course, increase as the cultivation is extended.

23rd. — Drove this morning to see a waterfall
situated about four miles from Bandong, and con-
sidered one of the lions of the place. The drive was
not an agreeable one, as the road was execrable, and
the dense fog that hung over the valley scarcely
admitted of our distinguishing any object beyond the
distance of a hundred yards. At about three miles
from the village, after climbing a short ascent of
about one hundred feet, we suddenly, and as it were
by magic, found ourselves standing in a perfectly
clear atmosphere, with a bright sun and cloudless sky
above us. From this point, a rapid descent of about
half a mile brought us to the waterfall. The water
falls in a compact body, and with almost stunning
noise, from a height of sixty or seventy feet. On the
whole, we were gratified with what we saw, and
consider the Bandong Waterfall to be well worthy of
a visit.

How much a person loses by being unacquainted
with the language of the country through which he is

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 59

travelling ! Dutch is not a language for which w^e
have any particular fondness, Or that we would take
much pains at any time to acquire ; but we would
give a good deal at the present moment to be enabled
to speak it^ or to understand it when spoken, for
owing to our very imperfect knowledge of this
language, we shall certainly be deprived of the
rich treat of hearing our fat landlady recount some
of the very singular passages of her very singular
history.

It is not often that one meets a lady with so strong
a matrimonial tendency, as to be tempted for the
tenth time to enter into the married state. Such,
however, has been the destiny of our garrulous
hostess ; and ever since we learnt that she had
actually buried her tenth husband, we have looked
upon this female Bluebeard with an indescribable
feeling of awe and wonder. She is by no means
averse to talk on the subject of her defunct husbands,
and she takes a pecuHar deUght, we are told, in
relating to any one who will listen to her, the
sudden and somewhat tragical mode in which the
last of the Decemvirate was gathered to his
fathers.

This gentleman, it seems, however estimable he
may have been in the several relations of private
Ufe, had one failing, which was a source of much
sorrow and trouble to his loving helpmate; he was
addicted to spirits. The lady, on the other hand, was
a rigid disciple of Father Mathew. She tried to con-

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60 BAMBLES IN

vert her spouse, but she tried in vain; matters got
worse and worse. At length, one day, the worthy
gentleman being in a state of unusual excitement, and
most mischievously inclined, took it into his head to
break the old lady's tea-cups. This was touching
the good vrouw in her tenderest point, and brought
matters to a crisis.

" Wilt gij meer genever drinken ?"* said she ; but
without waiting for a reply, she stepped to an
adjoining cupboard, from whence she brought forth a
square of her best scheidam. " Drink that, you
beast,'' said the wife.

" Ik dank u,"f said the husband, and putting the
bottle to his mouth, he drank till he fell from his
chair.

'^ He has had enough now," said the old lady ; and
so he had, for he suddenly turned quite blue ; and on
the same evening Mevrouw Honner buried her tenth
and last husband.

The above interesting passage in the life of our
good landlady was related to us by a gentleman who
received it from the Ups of the lady herself. But
Mevrouw had her other little weaknesses also. She
shared in that almost universal failing of the sex, a
fondness for dress ; and to see her on a Sunday after-
noon, tricked out in a low dress of scarlet satin,
trimmed with black lace, with diamond pins in her

* Will you have some more gin ?
t I thank you.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 61

hair, and gold bracelets on her arms, lookmg for all
the world like a prize peony at a horticultural show,
was a sight which any day of our life we would have
walked a couple of miles to see.

Her singular fondness for the newspaper had fre-
quently attracted our observation. Every moment of
the day or night that she was not engaged upon the
ordinary duties of her avocation, she might be seen
poring over the columns of the " Javasche Courant,''
with an intentness that seemed to indicate an interest
of no ordinary kind. We had frequently inquired
the news from her ; but our interrogatories invariably
failed to eUcit the slightest information, Mevrouw's
reply being always, " Niets, Mynheer, niets.''*

One day, having occasion to speak to the old lady,
we found her absorbed as usual in the columns of her
paper ; but as we approached nearer to her, we
remarked, to our surprise, that she was holding the
sheet upon which she was so attentively employed,
upside down. It was all the same to her, however,
for reading, as we now discovered, had never formed
a part of Mevrouw's education ; and the secret of her
devoting so much of her time to the newspaper,
must be ascribed, we fear, to that peculiar weakness
of her nature — ^which with a view of concealing her
literary deficiencies, and misleading the world in
regard to them, had suggested the adoption of the
novel expedient we have just noticed.

* None, Sir, none.

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62 RAMBLES m

June 24. — We were joined at dinner by three
strangers, a lady and two gentlemen. One of the
latter, who had already taken occasion to inform us
that he was not afraid to speak English before Eng-
lish people, as they never laughed at the mistakes of
foreigners, inquired whether it was on account of our
lady's health or our own that we had come to
Java. Having replied to this query, we inquired
whether there was much sickness in the neighbour-
hood.

" Oh ! yes, commonly, yes,'' replied the stranger.

^^ Of what nature ?" asked we.

" It's all in the belly," returned the stranger.
" Here, here," continued he, and he pointed as he
spoke, with the utmost gravity, to that portion of the
human frame which is so designated. We looked
becomingly grave, being unwilling that the stranger
should find in us an exception to the truth of his
remark, that Englishmen never laugh at foreigners.

The deadly power of the upas tree, and the many
stories connected with its supposed poisonous in-
fluence, are familiar to every schoolboy. But with
the progress of knowledge, and the extension of
civilization, all the illusions that ignorance and super-
stition had combined to create in reference to the upas
tree, have long since been dispelled, and practical
experience has proved that ^' the poisonous breath of
the upas tree" exists but in the poet's imagination, and
that all the monstrous tales with which the world was
so long blinded, were derived from no better source.

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JAVA AND THE S'ttlAITS. 68

Mr. L assured us* that he had frequently seen

the natives apply some of the supposed deadly sap to
their tongues, in order to show how perfectly in-
nocuous it was, if not taken into the stomach. From ,
the same gentleman, we learnt that the sap, if mixed
with acid, immediately assumes the character of a
most deadly poison, and in this state the natives are |
in the habit of applying it to their weapons.

* There used in former years to be a specimen of this tree on Mr.

L 's estate, a few miles to the southward of Bandong, which

formed^ of course, in those days, one of the lions of the neighbourhood.

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64 RAMBLES IN

CHAPTER VIII.

DELI0HTFX7L CUMATB OP BANDONO — ^ABOMINABLE DIET, AND STILL MORE
ABOMINABLE COOKERY — VISIT THE TEA PLANTATIONS OF TJEMBOLE-
YUT — LBMBANG — MR. PHILIPPEAN's COFFEE ESTABLISHMENT — DE-
LICIOUS CLIMATE — THE REVENUE SYSTEM IN JAVA — PRODUCTTVE
POWER OF THE COFFEE PLANT — ^ESTIMATE OF RAFFLES TOO HIGH —
VISIT THE CRATER ON THE TANKERHAN PROW — DINE WITH SOME

CHINESE OENTLEMEN — ^MADAME PFEIFFER — LEAVE BANDONG SOMA-

DANG, DESCRIPTION OF — ARRIVE AT CHERIBON.

Bandong well deserves, we think, the character it
bears of being the MontpeUer of Java. During the
fortnight we were there, the weather was truly
delightftil, the thermometer never rising above 76o at
the hottest period of the day, and frequently falUng
as low as 68® before sunrise. The town is situated
at an elevation of two thousand two hundred and
forty feet above the level of the sea, and there are
several lofty mountains in its immediate vicinity ;
amongst the number, the Goonangago and the
Goonangrang-rang, which rise respectively to the

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 65

the height of seven thousand five hundred, and six
thousand eight hundred feet.

During the present and two succeeding months,
which are considered the driest of the year, rain falls
every second or third day, but it seldom lasts beyond
an hour or two, and the soil quickly dries, so that
the roads are never dirty, and are always free from
dust. In such a climate as Bandong, the Indian
invalid could not fail to gain health and strength,
were it possible for him to meet with wholesome food ;
but the diet and the cookery are quite imsuited to an
English taste ; and to an invalid, they are perfect
poison.

Fine air, picturesque scenery, and healthful exercise,
may do something; but they will not do much,
if bread, meat, butter, and fish, are left out of
the scale; and none of these common necessaries
of life are procurable within eighty miles of Bandong.

June 28. — Passed a most agreeable morning at
T^embooliyut in inspecting the tea plantations of Mr.
Brumsteede. This gentleman, like our friend Mr.

L , holds a contract from the Government for the

supply of tea. He has three hundred acres of land
under cultivation, which last year yielded one hundred
and fifty two thousand pounds of tea. There are one
thousand labourers employed upon this establishment,
and the actual cost to the contractor for every pound
of tea before it is delivered to the Government
officer at Bandong, is estimated at only forty five
cents; whilst the price paid to the contractor by

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66 RAMBLES IN

the Government is seventy five cents ; the con-
tractor, therefore, makes a clear profit of thirty
cents, or five pence, upon every pound of tea that
leaves his establishment. The Java tea is not held in
high estimation in Java, and those who can afford it
prefer the tea from China. We certainly think it
very inferior to the tea that is grown in the Hima-
layahs.

From Tjembooliyut we proceeded to Mr. Philip-
pean's delightful residence at Lembang. This gentle-
man has one of the lai^est coffee plantations in this
part of the island ; and at an elevation of more than
four thousand feet above the level of the sea, he pos-
sesses the inestimable advantage of a climate that, in
point of salubrity, is inferior perhaps to none in the
world. Here, as may be supposed, one finds the
flowers and fruits of Europe, intermingling with those
of a tropical dime, and attaining the most perfect
luxuriance amid perpetual verdure, and in a tem-
perature that has all the agreeableness in it of an
European summer.

Walked with Mr. Fhilippean over his extensive
establishment, and inspected, with much interest, the
mills and other works appertaining thereto, as also
the various processes to which the berry is subjected,
ere it becomes thoroughly dried, and ready for de-
Uvery at the Government stores.

The revenue system in Java is a very peculiar one.
The gross produce of each district is annually esti-
mated by the district officers at the commencement of

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 67

each year. The Government then puts an arbitrary
valuation upon the produce of each district, two-
fifths of which valuation form the demand of the State,
in lieu of a land tax. The average rate at which this
demand falls upon the cultivated area of the whole
island is, we understand, about eight Java rupees the
bao.

In the districts of the Priangen, a different system
of assessment exists. In those districts, the agricul-
turist is permitted to retain the entire rice produce of
his land ; but in lieu thereof, he is bound to furnish
annually to the Government a certain quantity of
uncleaned coflFee, the amount being determined by
the district officers at the commencement of the year.

The price paid to the cultivator for his coflFee is
absurdly small, being only three rupees per pikul of
one hundred and thirty three pounds EngUsh, or
about one half-penny per pound; the usual selling
price of the same coflFee in Holland being thirty rupees
the pikul, or four pence the pound.

In the other districts of the island, every family
is bound to grow a certain quantity of trees, varying
in number from five hundred to one thousand ; and
for every pikul of uncleaned coflFee that the cultivator
may deliver at the Government store house, he is
entitled to receive ten rupees. Raflfles has greatly
over estimated, we are told, the productive powers of
the coflFee plant. The average yield, according to that
authority, is one and a quarter pounds ; but from Mr.
Philippean, and from other sources also, we learn that

F 2

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70 RAMBLES IN

The scene is one of complete desolation ; above,
around, and beneath him, there is no single sign or
sound of life, and the impressive stillness of the
atmosphere is unbroken, save by the monotonous
bubbUng of the death-dealing volcano.

Returned in the evening to the hotel, and dined
with some Chinese gentlemen, travellers like ourselves.
They conducted themselves with perfect propriety
during dinner ; but all went fast asleep directly it was
over. After a brief interval of repose, they seemed
suddenly to start into a state of conscious-
ness, when each of the party, having with me-
thodical exactness arranged his long pigtail, the
whole formed line, and slowly retired to their
room.

During the evening of the day on which we visited
Lembang, a black tiger made his appearance in our
host's garden : the evening before, there was a lion
there, in the person of the well-known Madame Ida
PfeiflFer. This energetic lady has already traversed on
foot a great part of the island, with no other com-
panion, we are told, than a brace of pocket pistols
and a packet of salt ; the former she carries for her
personal protection; the latter to give a zest to the
frugal village fare, upon which she has not unfre-
quently to depend for her day's meal.

July 1. — ^The drive from Bandong to Somadang,
twenty nine miles, is exceedingly pretty, particularly
that portion of the road that leads directly down to
the Ising Koep Port. The view from the top of the

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS, 71

hill, before you descend to this station, is highly
picturesque, and would aflford a pleasing subject for
the pencil. There is a quiet rural beauty about
Somadang that is to our mind peculiarly delightful.
The village is not enclosed, like Bandong, by hedges
of the hibiscus, but is open on several sides, and
commands some exquisite views of the country. We
consider Somadang by far the prettiest spot we have
yet seen ; and if great natural beauty can constitute a
title to the expression, we should be disposed to
say of this charming place what the poet said of
Naples, that it was ^^Un pezzo di cielo caduto in
terra."

The hotel we found clean and comfortable, and
our only regret was that we had not made arrange-
ments for spending several days in this delightful
village.

Bandong is a few himdred feet higher than So-
madang, and is consequently cooler; but we were
not sensible of any difference in the temperature of
the two places.

July 2. — ^The scenery on the road from hence to
Cheribon, fifty nine miles, is of a very varied cha-
racter. During the first half of the journey, and
imtil the river is crossed, there are several steep hills
to be surmounted, from the summits of which the
traveller may obtain some fine views of the country.
After passing the river, the road runs along the low-
lands, passing through extensive sugar farms, upon
which several hundred Chinamen may be seen

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72 RAMBLES IN

pursuing their various occupations with untiring
industry, affording a marked contrast to the indolent
Javanese, who take no thought beyond the present
moment. Cheribon is a dismal looking place on the
sea coast, with a miserable hotel, out of which we
were glad to make our exit on the following morning,
"en route'' to Tagal.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 73

CHAPTER IX.

WOliEN OP CJIERIBON — miTEi:;S A5D HORSES DETEEtOEATE — TAGAL — A

PASSENGRAKG THK BENGAL AYAH — THE EEOENT OF TAGALj BX-

CHA^'OE \TSIT3 WITH — VISIT THE TOMB OF THE SUSUTfAN TAGAL-

WA50I DINE WITH THE RESlDEyT — LEAVE TAGAL JAVANESE

H OS PIT ALTTY — BOMIAJOE JOU EN EV TO B A K J O E MAS — UKHEALTIi Y

rosmoN OP the lattee place — edible bieds' nests.

In their personal appearance, the Javanese have
certainly not been much favoured by nature ; they
have large coarse features, and an expression of face
that is extremely unpleasiug ; in figure^ they are
short and thick set, and their movements are
awkward and ungraceful.

The Avonien are even more forbidding than the
men ; and if it were necessary to specify a particular
class as a personification of female ugliness, we should
be disposed to assign the honour to the women of
Cheribon, Tlie females of that tUstrict have a sin-
gular w ay of confining their hair, w^hich they fasten
up by means of a wooden stick, of the size and shape
shown in the accompanying sketch.

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74 RAMBLES IN

Tagal, July 3. — Neither the hotels nor the
horses improve as we advance eastward. As regards
the former, there is on the part of the owners a per-
ceptibly increasing disregard for cleanliness, and a
corresponding predilection for greasy cookery; and
as regards the latter, there is on the part of the
ponies, more particularly those of the Cheribon
district, a marked aversion to leave home, which
renders travelling upon this most uninteresting por-
tion of the road far less agreeable than in most other
parts of the island. The distance from Cheribon to
Tagal is frequently performed in four hours ; but our
horses were not in good humour, and we were
upwards of six hours on the road. Here we halt one
day to enable the Resident to make arrangements
for our progress by a cross mountain road to Ban-
joemas, and for our reception and entertainment at
the Passengrang of Bomiajoe.

T^its are not used in Java as vnth us in British
India; but as some kind of accommodation is neces-
sary for the officers of Government, when engaged in
making the circuit of. their districts, buildings of
bamboo have been constructed at certain localities
and distances in each district, at the pubUc expense.
These buildings are usually called a Passengrang, and
are exceedingly comfortable.

For the first time since quitting Calcutta, an expres-
sion of extreme satisfaction was observed this evening
to play upon the vsrithered countenance of our one
eyed abigail. The master of the hotel, it would appear.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 75

not quite understanding the nature of her position in
our estabUshment, and deceived perhaps by the mas-
sive silver ornaments v^ith which she had adorned
her person on entering the village of Tagal, had con-
sidered her to be an Indian lady of rank ; he accord-
ingly had directed a table to be laid for her, an
arrangement of which the lady seemed highly to
approve. She had just concluded her repast, and
v^as preparing to immerse her tawny digits in the
cool depths of a capacious finger glass^ when our
unexpected appearance scared her from her design,
and she hastily retreated from the room.

In the course of the evening, we received a visit
ft^om the Regent of Tagal, which we returned in due
form on the following day.

This native gentleman has rendered himself exceed-
ingly popular in the district by his pleasing and
affable manners. He speaks a little Dutch, as also
a little English^ so that it is not difficult for a
stranger to enter into conversation with him. He
introduced us to his wife, who seemed equally de-
sirous w ith her husband to make herself agreeable.
She would be a pretty w^oman, were it not for the
disfignring effects of the betel nut, for which the
Javanese cherish the gi'eatest affection.

Drove six miles out of Tagal with the Resident, to
see the tomb of the Susunan Tagal- Wange, one of the
former Javanese Emperors, This Prince was de-
throned about two hundred years ago, and was
subsequently poisoned by liis son, and his remains

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76 RAMBLES IN

were removed from Cheribon and interred here at
his own express desire. The tomb itself has nothing
remarkable about it ; it is made of plain black stone,
without either ornament or inscription. The tomb,
however, is held in high veneration even at the pre-
sent day, and the expense of keeping it in repair is
defrayed by the Sultan of Solo Kerta. Close to
the Emperor's tomb, but in a separate building,
are deposited the remains of the parents of the
present Regent of Tagal ; a canopy of plain caUco
covers the tombs, and over each is the gold coloured
chattah, indicative of the rank of the occupant.

Breakfasted, or rather dined, with the Resident,
for though it was not yet noon, the meal partook far
more of the character of a dinner than of a breakfast.

Tagal is dreadfully hot, and swarms with mos-
quitoes, or " muskets,'^ as one of our Dutch acquaint-
ance persisted in calling them. We were glad, there-
fore, to find ourselves once more moving in the
direction of the moimtains from a place which would
soon cease to hold a place in our memory, but for the
pleasing recollection we shall long retain of the kind
hearted Resident, and of the pleasant hours we spent
in his company.

July 5. — Left Tagal an hour before daylight with
a team of six Javanese horses, who flew away with us
at the rate of twelve miles an hour. At Mungal
Saree, which lies at the foot of the mountain, the tra-
veller exchanges his carriage for a sedan chair, the
road being no longer practicable for post horses.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 77

Whilst our chairs were preparing, we were invited to
partake of a Javanese breakfast, which the Regent's
considerate kindness had directed to be in readiness
for us at this place.

The scenery about Mungal Saree is very pleasing,
and the mountain air felt so pure and reviving, after
the oppressive heat of the previous day, that we
should have been glad of an excuse for terminating
our day's journey here. Twelve miles further on, in a
narrow valley, and almost entirely encircled by hills,
lies Bomiajoe ; here, as we now write, are we sitting
in an excellent Passengrang, enjoying the cool breeze
that is blowing down upon us from the neighbouring
hills, and inwardly thanking our kind friends at
Tagal for the sumptuous banquet which, in their
sohcitude for our comfort, they have taken the
trouble to have prepared for us. With the Javanese,
as we learn from Raffles, and others who have written
regarding them, hospitality has always ranked as one
of their foremost duties ; and we can add our humble
testimony in corroboration of the statements of those
writers.

July 6. — From Bomiajoe to the confines of the
Banjoemas district — a distance of about eight miles —
the road runs through the same range of hills that we
had partly traversed in our progress to the former
place.

At Pelakaroean, to which point our carriage had
been sent on during the night, the road again admits
of the employment of post horses. On our arrival at

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78 RAMBLES IN

that place, however, we were disappointed to find,
that owing to some blundering of the Banjoemas
officials, there were no horses ready for us. We were
accordingly compelled to continue our route with
Coolies, when at length having arrived within about
twenty miles of Banjoemas, we were met by the
coachman, who had been sent out from that place to
convey us to the station.

We had given up all hope of our getting any
breakfast this day, when, to our agreeable surprise,
we were shortly after taken to a large and somewhat
imposing building. We were then bid to alight from
our carriage, and in less than five minutes we found
ourselves sitting down to a half English, half Java-
nese repast, to which, half famished as we were (it
being many hours since we had eaten anything), we
did not fail to do ample justice. The author of this
agreeable surprise was one of the Regents of Ban-
joemas, who sat by us as we eat, and seemed to
derive the greatest gratification from seeing us par-
take of the various viands of the well covered
table.

A couple of hours drive brought us to Banjoemas,
and to the house of the Resident, Mr. Hogendorp ;
here another disappointment awaited us. This gen-
tleman, it appeared, had received no intimation of our
approach, and was absent with his family at the sea
coast, some twenty miles from Banjoemas. His
Secretary, however, Mr. Bloomsteede, was at the
station, and immediately came forward, and with a

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JAVA AND THE STOAITS. 79

degree of kindness, which we shall long remember,
claimed us as his guests ; and during our short stay
at Banjoemas, we were treated by him with even
more than Javanese hospitality.

There was something inwardly wrong with the
Regent's breakfast, in spite of its tempting appear-
ance, for both ourselves and our good lady were
obliged to call up the doctor about midnight to pre-
scribe an antidote for the deleterious eflFects of a
Javanese fricandell. To this untoward event, how-
ever, which obliged us to defer our departure till the
following day, we were indebted for the pleasure of
meeting Mr. Hogendorp, who immediately on hearing
of our arrival, drove into Banjoemas, and found us
only just recovering from the consequences of our ill
digested breakfast.

Banjoemas is not at all inviting in its appearance,
and the Residency is in a bad situation, being placed
in the hottest part of the valley. The air felt ex-
tremely oppressive, and we have since learnt that
the place has the reputation of being very un-
healthy.

Had circumstances permitted, it was our intention
to have paid a visit to the Karung Bolang rocks on
the southern coast, from which we were now at
no great distance, in order to see the edible birds
nests, of which we had heard so much. The average
quantity of nests that is annually gathered from these
rocks amounts, we understand, to about one hundred
and twenty five pikuls, the revenue of which may be

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80 RAMBLES IN

estimated at about seven hundred and fifty thousand
Java rupees.

Much misconception formerly existed in regard to
the substance of which these nests were composed ;
but recent scientific experiments have estabUshed
the fact, that they consist of a species of sea weed,
only found on the coast of this and other islands of
the Indian Archipelago, The quahty of the nests
varies very considerably, according to the situation in
which they are found ; those who are connoisseurs in
the trade will select those nests which are formed in
the deepest recesses of the rock. These are remark-
able for their greater transparency, and from being
continually exposed to an atmosphere that is impreg-
nated with nitre, they necessarily imbibe a nitrous
taste, which constitutes, in the eyes of a Chinese
epicure, the chief excellence of the article.

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JAVA AND THE STllAITS, \0\

CHAPTER X.

EtJBOOMAlJ— A TfATTV^E REVIEW — SBBVILE DEfEEENCl OF TEE /AVA^ESE

TO SUPERIOR RAKE-^A PASSAGE TN TUB LIFE OP M, Dl SORHAl

THE GOYEimESS IX BTSTKESS— AERITAL AT POORWAREDJOK — hABlFS
MORNINO COSTUME — TI7E JAIL GOVEB.XMENT SCHOOL — ^ABHrVAL AT

MAGELANO.

An uninteresting drive of thirty eight miles brought
us to Kubooman^ a small district in charge of an
Assistant Resident. We were very kindly received
hy the officer in charge^ Mr. Petel, who accorapaiiied
us in the evening to see a review of some Javanese
troops, belonging to the native chiefs of the neigh-
bourhood, who were practising a variety of evolutions
for a public entertainment to be given by the Assistant
Resident at the close of the Ramzan. Shortly after
our arrival on the Parade ground, the Regent of Ku-
booman made his appearance, mounted upon a bright
bay horse, small^ but of exceeding strength, the trap-
pings of which were all of wrought silver. No sooner
was the figure of this important personage distin-

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82 RAMBLES IN

guished by the crowd of retainers and others
assembled on the plain, than the whole living mass
sank simultaneously to the ground, in token of the
respect that was due to his superior rank. The
Regent then rode slowly forward to a raised platform,
that had apparently been erected for the occasion,
and having dismounted from his horse, took his seat
amongst the party of the Assistant Resident. No
sooner had he seated himself, then a hundred human
beings were seen to emerge from the prostrate crowd,
and with their hams still resting on their heels, to
shuffle themselves along the ground with surprising
quickness, till having arrived in front of the platform,
they ranged themselves in a semicircle before the
Regent, still taking care not to quit the imbecoming
and degrading posture above described.

No stranger can have been a week in Java without
having occasion to notice the servile deference that
is paid by the Javanese to superior rank. The
Chinese evince their respect for rank by removing
their hats whenever a superior is passing by; but
the Javanese show their respect to him by suddenly
sinking to the ground with their hams resting on
their heels. The posture is as ungraceful as it is
degrading. All orders are asked and received in this
humiliating position, and no servant or other inferior
will durst assume any other posture, whilst he is in
the presence or within sight of a superior, even
though that superior may not be his master. The
custom is so intimately mixed up with the institutions

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. ffB

cif the country, that it would be a difficult matter
perhaps to eifect its abolition; but we learn from
Raffles that during the brief administration of the
English J the practice was in some measm^e discon-
tinued.

July 8. — Our dinner party this day was a very
small one, consisting only of the Resident, ourselves,
and lady, an English governess, and a grey headed
Spaniard, who sat perfectly silent nearly the w^hole
of dinner time^ a circumstance wiiich we had attri-
buted to his ignorance of English, the language in
w^hich the convei*sation had hitherto been carried on.
We had been speaking of our fellow passenger in the
* Java/ who had had his ear cut off by the Chinese,
and some one had just observed how remarkably
clever the French people were in making artificial
noses and ears, when the silent gentleman suddenly
broke forth with-^

** That puts me in mind of what happened to me
here in Java, and cost me from first to last a matter
of four thousand rupees/'

*' What was that ?** said one and all of us,

**Why, you must know%'' continued the stranger^
** that in the course of one of my voyages, I called at
Pondicherry, and there I saw a widow named Black.
She was a very fine handsome creature, and quite
fashionable^ and with such beautiful long hair, as in
all my travels Td never seen before. Well, I fell
quite in love with the widow, as w^as natural, and she
promised to marry me in due course. In the mean-

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84 BAMBLES IN

time, the ship was ready for sea, and I was obliged
to return to Batavia; but the widow was as good
as her word, for she came on in another ship, and she
put up at the best hotel in the place, all at my
expense, till we could be married. Well, everything
was got ready, and we were to be maried on the
following day, when my friend Mr. Pace (oh ! how
that young man used to drink !) came in the evening,
and began to play with the widow ^ Stop, Sir,' said
I ; ' can't you behave ?' But he would not stop, and
he pulled the widow about till she got red in the face.
* Now will you believe what I told you V said he, and
he made a clutch as he spoke at the widow's hair.
Off it all came, and there she was just as bald as a
white China saucer. I was too much surprised to
know what to do, so I ran clean out of the hotel, and
that was the last I saw of the widow Black, for I
thought it very likely she might have borrowed a
nose, or a leg, as well as a head of hair, and these
are always best in their natural state. But the widow
was resolved to get married if she could, so she sent
me several messages, begging me to come back to her,
to which I paid no attention at all. She then put me
into the lawyer's hands, and it cost me, as I have
said, four thousand Java rupees, before I got clear
of the business. I don't know what became of the
widow, for I never ask any questions, and I have
always been rather shy of females ever since."

The stranger who had been made to pay thus
dearly for his fondness for long black hair, was, as we

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JAVA AND TUE STRAITS. 85

subsequently learnt, a Spaniard by birth, and the
second son of a Count di Sornai, His parents, it
appeared, were desirous to make a priest of him ; but
as he had no taste for the church, he ran away from
Spain to Manilla, and from thence he found his way
to Java, where he has now resided twenty two years.
His friends are now desirous that he should return to
Spain, and they have sent him, we hear, fifteen
thousand rupees to enable him to leave Java.

The English governess, who had been so es:tremely
lively and agreeable all the day, seemed particularly
restless and unhappy we thought during the w^hole of
dinner time ; but we did not discover the cause till
late in the evening. The good lady, it would appear,
had deemed it right, out of compliraent to her lady
guest, to encase her person in a pair of stiff English
stays ; the consequence was, that, accustomed as she
was to the loose dress of the Dutch ladies, to which
we have already had occasion to refer, she was very
nearly suffocated before the dinner was half con-
cluded. At length 5 finding she could bear no longer
the punishment she had thus inflicted on herself, she
jumped up from the table, and in a hasty whisper
begged her lady guest w^ould suffer her to resume her
customary costume. It is probable that the lady
would not have deemed it necessary to undergo this
infliction, had she been aware that the party, in com-
pliment to whom she had endured so great a mar-
tyrdom, did not wear stays herself.

Twenty eight miles from Kubooman is Poorwared-

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86 BAMBLES IN

joe, the head quarters of the Bagelain Residency.
There is nothing interesting or pleasing on the road.
In this district, as in Banjoemas also, the principal
cultivation is indigo, varied by an occasional patch of
sugar cane, or Indian com. Poorwaredjoe, though
as hot as Kubooman, is a far more cheerful looking
place, and has the reputation of being extremely
healthy. The situation of the station, however, is not
a good one, the locality selected being at the very
foot of a semicircular range of hills, which must
greatly obstruct the passage of the air into the valley
below.

We were most hospitably received by the Resident,
Mr. B , to whom we carried letters of intro-
duction. The Resident's family made a considwable
party of themselves, mustering, as it did some twelve
or fourteen strong, inclusive of a troop of children of
various ages. There were other visitors besides our-
selves ; amongst the number, a colonel of cavalry and
his aide de camp, and a lady from a neighbouring
district with her invalid child.

At seven o'clock dinner was announced, a good
substantial meal, partaking more of the English style
than any we had yet seen in Java. But just look at
those children ; did ever nursery of this or any other
land produce such wolfish appetites.^ Having no
particular appetites ourselves, we had abundant
leisure for noting what was going on around us ; and
as we saw those tiny creatures, some of whom could
barely lisp their mother tongue, cramming down their

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 87

throats in rapid succession a heterogeneous mass of
soup, and beef steak, pork, pickles, and salad, with
puddings, cakes, jams, jellies, fruits, and bonbons
to conclude with, we required no further explana-
tion of the general sickly appearance of the Dutch
children in Java. We thought of the rosy cheeked
children of Great Britain, and contrasted with •feelings
of pleasure the wholesome restraints and healthful
habits of our English nurseries, with the baneful
system under which the children of the Dutch are
brought up in Java.

July 10. — Found ourselves early this morning
promenading in the Residency Garden, by invitation,
with two ladies, who were habited in that singula^
costume which had excited our surprise so much on
our first arrival on the island. We were quite at our
ease, however, on the present occasion, and felt none
of that awkwardness which we experienced when
thrown for the first time into the company of ladies
whose only covering was a short night dress and a
Malay petticoat, and whose streaming uncombed hair
and naked feet thus publicly exhibited, must have
shocked the delicacy of any English woman.

Visited the jail in company with the Resident;
thought the building admirably adapted for the pur-
pose, being well ventilated, very roomy, and very
cleanly. The population of this Residency consists,
we understand, of six hundred thousand inhabitants,
and the average number of persons under confine-
ment in the several district jails of the Residency rarely

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88 RAMBLES IN

exceeds three hundred, a very small number indeed as
compared with the number usually under confinement
in most of our Indian district jails.

There is a large Government school at Poor-
waredjoe for the education of the natives. The
instruction imparted is restricted to the Malay and
Javanese tongues, and to a knowledge of accounts.
European languages, as also European history, are
carefully excluded from this and indeed from all the
native schools, from an apprehension, we were told,
that such knowledge might possibly prove too
dangerous a weapon in the hands of the natives.

The drive from Poorwaredjoe to Magelang, twenty
seven miles, is perhaps as pretty a drive as is to be
found of the same length in any part of the island ;
but the charms of the scenery were, in a great
measure, lost upon us, owing to the excessive heat of
the weather, which at one time was so overpowering
as to suggest the expediency of our halting for a few
hours till the sun had lost somewhat of its power. The
horses, too, on this occasion proved most unaccommo-
dating. The first stage was performed at a walk, and
the second was no better, for one of the leaders,
shortly after leaving the post house, threw his rider,
and backing at the same moment, knocked down
three of the other horses, who lay sprawling alto-
gether for about half an hour in a state of almost
irremediable conftision. Owing to this and other
causes, we were upwards of six hours on the road,
and did not reach Magelang till after dark.

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JAVA AND THE SllUlTO, 89

We found the hotel tolerably clean and comfortable;
but though long past the usual hour of §upper, there
was no indication of any such meal being forthcoming.
The landlord was absent at Salatiga ; there w^ere no
other visitors in the hotels and the landlady was new
to the business ; the prospect before us was, therefore,
not a very promising one. At length, after a delay of
several hours, a kind of half breakfast half dinner
was set upon the table; but the good vrouw had
clearly a very hmited knowledge of the culinary art,
and her labours on this occasion were quite in vain,
for nothing whatever w^as eatable save the potatoes,
upon which we supped and w ent to bed-

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90 EAMBLES IN

CHAPTER XI.

THE RESIDENT AT MAQBLANG, UNCOUUTEOUS CONDUCT OF — ^A SUNDAY
IN ENGLAND AND A SUNDAY IN JAVA — ^VISIT THE BORO-BODOR

AND MUNDOOT TEMPLES — RECENT DISCOVERY OP THE LATTER

LEAVE MAGELANG DETENTION IN THE SALATIGA JURISDICTION —

COURTEOUS BEHAVIOUR OP THE RESIDENT OF THAT DISTRICT — ^AR-
RIVAL AT SALATIGA— HOTEL THERE.

Having forwarded, soon after our arrival at
Magelang, a letter of introduction, as also our card,

to Mr. G , the District Resident, we received the

same evening the following laconic note from that
gentleman.

" Mr. , Esq., est prie de se presenter chez le

Resident demain matin chez lui."

We were particularly anxious to visit the far famed
temples of Boro-Bodor and Mundoot; and as that
object could not well be eflfected without the aid of
the Resident, we deemed it politic, under the circmn-
stances, to obey the commands of that functionary.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 91

and present ourselves at his house, as directed by his
note. Had we had no such object in view, we would
have seen the author of this ungracious billet on the
summit of the lofty Soembing,* ere we would have
condescended to pay the slightest attention to a note
that was couched in such a dictatorial style.

Our interview with this w^ould be great man was as
brief as circumstances would admit of ; no allusion
whatever was made by him, or by ourselves, to the
introductory letter we had forwarded ou the previous
evening, and having soon arranged what was neces-
sary for our contemplated visit to the temples, we
returned to oui* hotel with a feeling of extreme satis-
factiouj that we were independent of the hospitality of
the good people of Magelang,

July 11.^ — A Sunday in Java is not like a Sunday
in our own loved land. There, whatever may be the
real feelings of the heart, there is at lea.st that regard
for external observances, which serves to show that
there is one day of the seven which is God's^ — one day
on which we were commanded to withdraw ourselves
from the dominion of the world and all its empty
vauities^ and devote ourselves with our whole mind,
and soul, and strength to the service of that Great
Being, who is the source of all goodness and mercy.
Unprofitable servants as we all are, even the most
zealous Christians of that highly favoured laud, yet
few are there, we believe, among those who can claim

♦ A IiigH tuounlaui near Magekng.

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92 RAMBLES IN

England for their birthplace, who, at some period
or other of their lives, have not experienced the
sweet, the almost hallowed influence of an English
Sunday.

It is in the tranquil seclusion of a country village
that the heart is generally most alive to such feel-
ings; the pretty rustic church with its deep toned
bell summoning both high and low to the Temple of
their common Creator, the many village groups that
throng, with ruddy cheek and happy face, across the
rustic green, the still calm that pervades the peaceful
vUlage whilst its humble inmates are worshipping
before the footstool of their God, the verdant
meadows carpeted with the simple daisy or golden
buttercup, and redolent with the perfume of their
countless flowers, all combine to impart a sort of holy
influence to the scene, and stamps the English Sun-
day as the most pleasing picture that it is possible
for humanity to contemplate. That man is little
to be envied who could look on such a scene un-
moved, or in whose heart the occasion could fail to
give birth to holier and better thoughts.

How diflferent is it in this land. Here no village
church is seen with its ivy clad porch and humble
spire ; here no happy, contented peasantry greet the
eye, glad of an occasion that withdraws them for a
while from the world and all its petty strifes ; here,
alas ! there is nothing to mark the Lord's day from
any other day of the seven ; and long before the sun
has set, even the most moral of the Christian corn-

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JAVA AND THE STBAITS. 93

raunity are apt to forget in the pleasures of the card
table, or some other worldly pursuit, the sacred obli-
gations of the day.

England ! England ! thou art, indeed, a country
well to be proud of; but thy many excellencies can
only be felt and appreciated, when placed in contrast
with the defects of other lands.

The far famed Boro-Bodor Temples are situated
about nine miles from Magelang; and about two
mUes from Boro-Bodor are the still more interesting
ruins of Mundoot, Neither history nor tradition
supply us with much information respecting these
singular remains ; all that we know regarding them
is, that they are of Boodhist origin. Of the two
ruins, the Boro-Bodor are by far the most extensive;
but the figures in the Mundoot are far more perfect.
This latter temple was only discovered about fifteen
years since by the late Resident of Koodoo, Mr.
Hartman. This gentleman, at the period referred to,
fortunately had occasion to visit this neighbourhood,
when one of his attendants happened accidentally to
trip against a piece of stone, which was hidden from
his view by the thick bushes that had sprung up on
all sides of it. On examination, this stone proved to
be a piece of sculpture, similar in character to the
rude sculpture of the Boro-Bodor.

Mr. Hartman, who was a bit of an antiquarian,
directed the ground around the spot to be excavated,
when his labours were rewarded by the discovery of
the Temple of Mundoot. It will be observed that

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the centre figure in the drawing wants several fingers,
these were destroyed by the labourers who were em-
ployed in excavating and removing the rubbish that
surrounded the ruin.

Of the accompanying sketches, one is intended to
represent the principal entrance to Boro-Bodor ; the
second represents the interior of Mundoot, with the
gigantic figures of Boodh, and the Kings of India and
Java ; and the third is a drawing of a small temple,
situated on the road to Boro-Bodor.

^^It seems to be the general opinion,'' writes
Raffles, " that the large temple of Boro-Bodor, and
several others, were sacred to the worship of Boodh.
The style and ornament of this temple are found
much to resemble those of the great Boodhist temple
at Gyah, on the continent of India. The date of
several inscriptions in the ancient Javanese character,
found in the central part of Java, is supposed to be
in the sixth century of the present Javanese era;
and the traditions of the Javanese concerning the
arrival of certain enlightened strangers, and an inti-
mate connection betwixt Java and Continental India,
refer this intercourse to the sixth and three following
centuries. It is probable, therefore, that the whole
were constructed about the same period, or within
the same century, or, at any rate, between the sixth
and the ninth century of the Christian Era.

At Mundoot we met with an Italian artist in the
employ of the Dutch Government. This gentleman
had already made, he told us, four hundred drawings

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 95

of these interesting ruins. The accompanying sketch
of the Mundoot Temple was reduced from a drawing,
with which, this gentleman was kind enough to pre-
sent us.

July 13. — ^We have ever found in our intercourse
with the Dutch (and we have dwelt a great deal
amongst them at different periods of our life), two
virtues that are eminently characteristic of them as a
nation. We refer to their kind-heartedness, and
their genuine hospitality ; to neither of these virtues,
however, can the Resident of Magelang, in our judg-
ment, lay claim. We dp not blame him for having
failed to exercise towards us that liberal hospitality
which we found everywhere else in our rambles
through Java ; we do not blame him, we say, for the
neglect of this virtue, because good breeding does not
necessarily imply the exercise of hospitahty, but we
do blame him for his studied neglect of that courtesy
which is the distinguishing mark of good breed-
ing.

In the course of our brief interview with this
official, we had signified to him that it was our wish
to proceed on our journey at daylight on the 13th
(this day), and on being informed that we could do
so, we had returned to our hotel with the comfortable
feeUng that we should be enabled to leave Magelang
at the date and hour specified. The carriage was
duly packed, the horses were put to, and we were on
the point of taking our seat in the carriage, when a
messenger arrived with a verbal message from the

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96 RAMBLES IN

Resident, to the effect that we could only have horses
for about half the distance to the next Residency, and
that we must therefore defer our departure till the
following day. We were, however, sick of Magelang
and everything about it, and were desirous of shaking
its inhospitable dust from off our feet, so we resolved
to start " coute qui coute."

For four posts, matters went smoothly enough.
We had now entered the Salatiga jurisdiction, and at
the frontier post horses were refused, the same being
required for the Resident of that district. Fortu-
nately for us this officer happened to be in the imme-
diate neighbourhood ; we accordingly sat down and
wrote a few lines to him stating our case, and having
procured a mounted messenger we dispatched him
with our missive. In less than an hour our mes-
senger retiumed, with orders from the Resident that
the post horses should at once be given to us. A few
hours later, we had an opportunity of thanking this
gentleman for his considerate kindness in surrender-
ing the horses to us, whereby he had subjected him-
self, as we found, to a detention of several hours on
the road. Owing to this and other delays we did not
reach Salatiga till late in the afternoon.

The village of Salatiga stands at an elevation of
eighteen hundred feet above the sea ; and it furnishes
a most agreeable retreat to the merchants and others
resident at Samarang, from the almost unsuppbrtable
heat of that place.

The hotel at Salatiga is a mercantile building.

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JAVA AND TIIE STHiUTS, 97

being enclosed on every side by trees and bushes^
which effectually exclude all circulation of the air.
The sitting rooms reek with the fumes of tobacco,
and have a dirty squalid look, which extends to
everything about the establishment. The cookery
was quite in character, and could only be fitly de-
signated by the term disgusting-

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98 ItAMBLES IN

CHAPTER XII.

DETERMINE TO LEAVE JAVA — CAUSE OP THIS RESOLUTION — ^NO BETTER
PHYSICIAN THAN A GOOD COOK — LEAVE SALATIGA POR SAMARANG —
HEAT OP THE LATTER PLACE — THE JAVA HOTEL — DRIVE THROUGH

THE TOWN AND ENVIRONS — ^A DUTCHMAN'S OPINION OP JAVA

VAST RESOURCES OP THE COUNTRY YET TO BE DEVELOPED — ^DIFFI-
CULTY OP OBTAINING MEANS OP TRANSPORT POR THE PRODUCE —
HOW REMOVABLE — PROBABLE RESULTS HAD THE ISLAND REMAINED
A BRITISH POSSESSION, AND PROBABLE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OP
SYSTEM UNDER THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT.

Samarang, July 14. — Rancid butter, musty
bread, unmanageably tough fowls, and the eternal
fricandell,* have now pursued us, step by step, over a
distance of nearly five hundred miles; and though
we can appreciate most fully the great natural beau-
ties of the country, and can bear testimony to its
delicious climate, and though we have experienced,

^ The fricandell of Java is precisely the kooffcah of Bengal^ with this
difference, that the former is made with salt rancid butter, which is not
the case with the Indian dish.

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JAVA AND THE STItAITS. 99

but with one exception, unyaried kindness and atten-
tion at the hands of the European Residents, from the
Governor General down to the bumble hotel keeper,
yet our unimproved health warns us that we must
flee this beautiful island, from the utter impossibility
of combining along with its salubrious climate a diet
that IS in any way suited to an invalid.

Let it not be supposed that a taste for sensual
enjoyment is creeping over us in our old age, or that
disease has rendered us querulous or fastidious, we
disavow any such imputation ; we are not, nor ever
were we, of the epicurean school, yet, nevertheless,
we hold that there is nothing derogatorj^ to the dig-
nity of man, or to that intelligence w ith which he has
been gifted above all other breathing creatures, that
he should study to avail himself of every means that
is open to hira to preserve his physical energies in
health and vigour.

A valued female relative of our owti, who formerly
held opinions not quite in accordance with those here
expressed, was in the habit of paying her cook at the
very lowest rate of remuneration ; the consequence of
this false economy was, that neither herself or her
children were ever in health, and the doctor got what
had been better bestowed upon this domestic* At
last some kind friend brought conviction to the mind
of our respected relative, that there was no better
physician than a really good cook. The old lady
took the hint J she discharged her inefficient ser-
vant, and by paying a few pounds more to another

H 2

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100 RAMBLES IN

party, who was mistress of the art she professed, she
has succeeded in keeping the doctor out of her house
during the last ten years.

Samarang is about thirty miles from Salatiga, a
descent nearly the whole way. The heat of this
place has not been exaggerated, and it may probably
lay claim to being the hottest place in Java. In the
time of the old Dutch Government, Samarang was a
town of great importance, being the place of resi-
dence of the Lieutenant Governor of the eastern dis-
tricts, and the members of his Council. These
appointments have been long since abohshed; the
Administration of the country under a separate
Governor and Council not being found to work well.
That the Administration of these districts should have
been impure and inefficient can, however, excite but
little surprise, when we learn that in those days no
fixed salaries were given to the officers of Grovem-
ment, but in lieu thereof, they were permitted to
enjoy certain prerogatives, the burden of which, as a
matter of course, fell mainly upon the people who
were subject to their authority.

There are several hotels at Samarang, the best of
which is the Java Hotel, situated about a couple of
miles from the town. Everything is very good at
this establishment ; the rooms are spacious, well ven-
tilated, and well furnished, and the table arrange-
ments are superior to those of any hotel we have yet
visited.

Here end for the present, at least, our land travels

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JAVA AT*D THE STIIAITS. 101

in Java ; but despite of the pleasurable excitemeut
which rapid travelling, picturesque scenery, and fine
weather combine to produce on the mind, we shaU
not be sorry, we think, to exchange our luxurious
travelling carriage for the comparative quiet of even a
Dutch steamer. The ' Queen of the Netherlands '
leaves this port in three days time for Batavia, when
we shall hope to be once more ploughing the blue
waters of the Java sea " en route'* to the capital,

July 15. — Drove this evening with a yoimg Dutch
acquaintance through the town and environs of Sa-
marang. Met all the beauty and fashion of the
place; the ladies in low dresses and short sleeves,
the gentlemen in black pantaloons and coats, with
long white waistcoats reaching to their knees. Con-
sidering that the thermometer is never seen below
80^ at this place, we should have thought that a mere
regard for personal comfort would have suggested to
the male sex a more suitable dress than black broad-
cloth ; but the Dutch have an especial fondness for
blackj which they consider the only really fashionable
colour for either coat or trowsers. A man who would
go to a dinner or to an evening party in white
trowsers would find himself a marked man, and
would be set down as a Goth, who was wholly
ignorant of the rules of good society, "

** How do you find the country ?" is generally the
leading question which evei'y Dutchman puts to you
on your first introduction to him. He w^Ul then,
without giving you time to reply^ proceed to answer

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his own query, by telling you that the country is the
finest in the world, and the climate unrivalled.
Without going quite so far as this, we are free to
admit that we have never seen any country more
highly favoured by nature than the Island of Java.
Under the proverbially inert administration of the
Dutch, however, but little progress has as yet been
made in developing the vast resources of the country.
Little more than a fourth of the island has been
brought under cultivation, though such is the natural
richness of the soil that it scarcely ever needs manure,
and year after year the same land is made to yield a
double crop.

Numberless rivers and streams intersect the
country in various parts, affording to the agricul-
turist the most abundant means of irrigation. Seve-
ral of these are navigable for boats of considerable
burden at all times of the year, and many more
might, at a trifling cost, be made available for the
transport of produce during the wet season, if the
Government could be induced to incur the expense
of removing the banks of mud with which the mouths
of many of those streams are at present choked
The cost of the outlay would soon be repaid to the
State, in the large addition it would derive to its
revenue from the magnificent teak and other timbers
that are now rotting in the central forests of the
island. Most of the roads are impassable during
more than half the year, and the only ones that are
not so are the Government post roads ; but these are

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 103

not available to the agriculturist for the transport of
his produce.

It is difl&cult to understand upon what ground of
expediency the Government has deemed it fit to close
these highways to the growers of produce. We have
been told that it is owing to the iiide construction of
the country cart, the wheels of which being only an
inch thick, would be sure to cut up the road where-
ever they passed ; but if this be the only ground of
objection, an easy remedy for the evil might surely be
found in the substitution on these roads of a cart of a
different and less objectionable construction. We
cannot but suppose that the growers of produce, and
others possessing any interest in the agricultural
prosperity of the country, would gladly accede to an
arrangement of the kind, in order to secure increased
facilities for the transport of their produce.

Had this island remained in British possession, it
is probable that matters would have been very dif-
ferent from what they now are. The silly, vexa-
tious passport system would have ceased to exist,
travellina: would have been made available to all
classes, English capital and English enterprise would
have destroyed all monopolies, and private com-
petition would long since have lowered the expense of
posting to such a rate as to place travelling within
the reach of almost every class. As matters stand at
present, under the Dutch Goveniment, the rates for
posting are so extravagantly high, being on an
average two Java rupees per mile, as to put it out

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of the power of all save those who are in independent
circumstances to see anything whatever of the
country.

It is strange that the Government does not see that
the whole system is rotten, and that the very circum-
stance of the State being obliged to pay the inn-
keeper, instead of the latter paying the State, is a
conclusive proof that Grovernment monopolies do not
answer. We cannot but think that if Government
were to lower the rates of posting one half, to abolish
the passport system, to throw open all the post roads,
under certain conditions to the growers of produce^
and to give some encouragement to private enter-
prise, that travellers would greatly multiply, that the
accommodation would infinitely improve, and that
the Government exchequer would be greatly bene-
fitted by the change of system.

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JAVA AND THE 8TEAITS. 105

CHAPTER XIII.

EETUEN TO BATAVIA — THE STEAMER 'KONINGEN' — A SUBALTEEN's
BREAKFAST — ^JEALOUSY OP GOVERNMENT TOWARDS STRANGERS —
CUSTOM HOUSES — ^PASSPORT SYSTEM — PROPRIETARY lUGHT IN THE
SOIL TESTED IN THE SOVEREIGN ALONE — FEUDAL SERVICES — TAXES
— TAX ON THE TRANSFER OF PROPERTY — VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS
— INDIGENOUS PLANTS — RELIGION OF THE JAVANESE — THEIR HINDOO
ORIGIN.

On the morning of the 18th of July we embarked
on board the * Koningen' steamer to return to Batavia.
The actual steaming distance to that port does not
exceed, we beUeve, two hundred and twenty miles,
and with both wind and current in our favour, we
had confidently reckoned on reaching Batavia by the
afternoon of the following day ; but the * Koningen '
happened to partake of the characteristic features of the
nation whose colours she bore. §he was round bot-
tomed, and given to smoke, and she did not reach the
Roads till the morning of the third day. We should
not much like to round the Cape in this vessel against

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a strong north wester, for in an ordinary sea it is
difficult to get more than six knots out of her.

Amongst the passengers of the ^Koningen' was a
biHous looking subaltern, with the strangest taste for
strange compounds of any individual we ever re-
member to have seen. We sat down one morning
with this gentleman, to take our frugal meal of rusks
and tea, and were a good deal diverted at seeing him
prepare and despatch his morning meal, which was of
a somewhat diflferent character. He first cut for
himself a thick shce from off the musty loaf; upon
this he poured a quantity of rancid butter ; he next
proceeded to divest three eggs of their shells, and
having tumbled the same into a wine glass, he added
the following ingredients : five sardines with their
skins on, two pickled onions, also with their skins on,
one teaspoonfiil of pepper, one of mustard, one of
rancid butter, and half a spoonful of vinegar; he
then, in the most systematic manner possible, mixed
together these several ingredients, and finally pro-
ceeded to devour this very curious compound with
undisguised relish. We did not envy him his break-
fast ; but we did feel envious of the digestion that
could encounter such a mixture, and be none the
worse.

The Government is absurdly jealous of strangers,
and though it rarely goes the length of refusing them
permission to travel over the island, provided all the
necessary forms have been observed by the applicant,
yet sanction to visit the interior is never wilUngly

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JAVA AND THE STRAlTa 107

accorded, and the authorities are always ready to
avail themselves of any good ground for withholding
the requisite permission. As it is, the high rate for
posting charged by Goverament^ as we have already
remarked, amounts almost to a prohibition upon
travelling ; then again the many minute and trouble-
some forms that have to be observed by the intending
traveller, added to the annoyance of the absurdly
rigorous passport system, tend in no small degree to
discourage travelling, even among those whose cir-
cumstances may admit of their indulging a w^ish of
the kind.

We have not yet resided tw^o months on the island,
yet on no less than four separate occasions, have our
trunks and other baggage been subjected to a rigorous
examination by the Custom House authorities. Of
the first examination, which was made on our first
arrival in the country, we have no right to complain ;
but we do complain of, and protest against, the other
three examinations, as quite unnecessary and as ex-
tremely vexatious. We had never once left the island,
as our passport could testify ; yet, because we found
it convenient to return to Batavia by sea instead of
by land, w^e were subjected to the annoyance of having
our luggage searched at the port of embarkation, as
also again on reaching the capital ; and on leaving the
island a few days afterwards for Singapore, we had
to submit to the same annoyance for the fourth time
in two months, in order that the Dutch Goveniraent
might be certified that w^e had not carried away from

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the country more than the authorized amount of
bullion.*

No person can travel beyond Buitenzorg (thirty
six miles) without the express permission of the
Governor General in Council. We know of a gentle-
man who has been resident for eighteen years in
Batavia, whom business of an urgent nature had
called to Samarang, a large sea port about two
hundred and twenty miles to the eastward of the
metropolis. He had engaged his passage in one of
the steamers that ply on the coast ; but the chief civil
authority at Batavia refused him a passport, because
he had omitted to observe some absurdly trivial form,
which, in the estimation of that officer, could not be
dispensed with. The Governor General was absent
at the time, in the interior of the island, and on such
occasions, it seems, the Resident of Batavia is em-
powered to grant the requisite sanction to travel ; biit
in the instance under notice, there is reason to
beUeve that it was not a sense of public duty only
that prompted the Resident to refuse the passport,
but that private feehng exercised some degree of
influence also in the matter.

In Java the proprietary right in the soil is invested
exclusively in the governing power. This principle
appears to have been fully recognized and acted upon
in all ages, and on all occasions ; the notion, there-

^^^*^^*^*^>^^^^^>^^t^'^*^^>^>^>^^^^S^^^^^'^^^'^^>^^>^

* By an order of Council no one is allowed to carry out of the island
more than five hundred dollars.

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JAVA AOT) THE STRAITS. 109

fore, of a right in the soU independent of that of the
sovereign, has never been entertained by a native of
Java ; nor conld he be made to understand perhaps
the possibility of such right coexisting along with the
proprietary right of the ruling power.

A family, or an individual, may have reclaimed a
tract of waste land, and by their industry may have
rendered it a means of subsistence, or a source of
profit ; the same land may have remained for genera-
tions in the occupancy of their descendants ; yet, by no
law or custom of the country, could the occupants of
such lands be held to have acquired a proprietary
interest in the soil, this right being vested, as we have
said, exclusively in the sovereign. The Dutch Go-
vernment has always been remarkably tenacious of
this right, and nothing would induce it, we believe,
to alienate its right in the soil, or any of the privileges
connected with it. During the brief administration
of the British, private individuals were permitted,
nay, encouraged to purchase land ; several sales were
made accordingly; and when the island was again
transferred to the Dutch, it was stipulated that these
sales were not to be interfered with.

Government can claim the services of every adult
native male subject for one day in each week; this
feudal right is often exercised with an inconsiderate
rigour, and not unfrequently presses with extreme
severity upon the people ; for example, a certain road,
or fort, or other pubUc work, needs repair, the
required number of labourers are collected together

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by the district authorities, and frequently from a con-
siderable distance ; but no allowance, we understand,
is ever made for the distance the workman may have
to travel to the scene of his labours. In rendering
this one day's service, therefore, it not unfrequently
happens that a labourer loses two or three days of
the week.

Under the old Dutch Government, the system of
taxation was very arbitrary and oppressive. The
most singular tax of that period, perhaps, was the one
that was levied by the Government upon the queues
of its Chinese subjects. The amount of the tax was
determined by the length of the Chinaman's tail ; but
at what rate per ell we have been unable to ascertain.
The taxes under the present Government are not
generally burdensome; the heaviest tax is upon the
transfer of property, being six per cent, on the actual
sale price of the property sold or otherwise trans-
ferred. It has been calculated that from this tax
alone in Batavia, the Government realizes every
twentieth year a sum that is equal to the value of
the whole house property of that city.

There is no country in the world, perhaps, so
highly favoured in the vast abundance and variety of
its vegetable productions as the island of Java. Rice,
of which there are about a hundred varieties, is the
grand staple ; these belong severally to one or other
of the two great classes called Sawah and Tagal ; the
former being the irrigated lands ; the latter the unirri-
gated. The rices of the former are transplanted, but

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. Ill

not those of the latter. The Sawah lands, besides
theh* annual crop of rice, yield a crop of cucumber or
beans ; and with the Tagal rice it is usual to raise a
variety of vegetables, and sometimes a crop of cotton*
The rices of both classes are eaten as soon as they
are cut.

The other chief products are Indian com, coffee,
pepper, indigo, sugar, tea, wheat, potatoes, yams, and
other tuberous roots, with a variety of oil plants.
Amongst the fruits indigenous to the country are the
mangoe, of which there are thirty or forty sorts ; the
mangustin, the durian, the jack, the bread fruit, the
guava, the plantain, the custard apple, the pine apple,
the pomegranate, the orange, lemons, pumpkins,
pumplemoose, and many others ; and in the more
elevated parts . of the island, the fruits of Europe,
which are being gradually introduced, have been
found to attain the highest perfection, particularly
the strawberry, the plum, the peach, and the
apple.

The Javanese profess the Mahomedan creed; but
that they were formerly Hindoos (whether followers
of Boodh or Brahma, or of both, is not so clear)
is proved by evidence that must be held to be
conclusive. Independent of the testimony that is
furnished by their own language, which abounds with
Sanscrit words, we have the clearest evidence of their
Hindoo origin in the traditions which still exist
respecting their ancient faith ; in many of their
religious observances at this day; in the numerous

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temples and idols peculiar to the worship of Boodh
and Brahma, that are scattered over various parts of
the country, and in the fact of there being still
amongst the wild and little frequented range of hills
called the Teyngar Mountains, a class of people
known under the name of Bedui, who still con-
tinue to follow the doctrines of the Hindoo my-
thology.

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JAVA AKD THE STRAITS. 113

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ''BABA KEAMa/' OE LANGUAGE OP HONOUB — CHAEAGTEB OP THE
JAVANESE — SUITABLENESS OP JAVA AS A PLACE OP BESIBENCE POB
THE INDIAN INVALID— THE HOTEL DEE NBDEELANDEN — THE WOED
'^ PASHIONABLe/' its APPLICATION AND SIGNIPICATION IN JAVA —
HOSPITALITY OP THE ENGLISH EESIDENTS AT BATAVIA — LEAVE JAVA
—THE NOETH WATCH — THE STEAMEE EUNS UPON A EOCK — STANDING
DISH POE BEEAKPAST ON BOAED THE ' BATAVIA ' — AEEIVE AT
SINGAPOEE*

We have already noticed the marked respect that
is paid to superior rank by the natives of Java, and
their mode of exhibiting that respect by the assump-
tion of the peculiar squatting posture, called by them
"Dodok/' This servile deference is still further
shown by another practice, which is even more
degrading than the one already referred to. Copious
as is the vernacular language of the country, it is
nevertheless not considered to possess a dictionary,
sufficiently comprehensive to supply terms capable of
expressing the sense which an inferior should enter-

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114 BAMBLES IN

tain of the vast distinction that exists betwixt himself
and one who holds a superior station in life to his
own ; whenever, therefore, an inferior has occasion to
address a person of superior rank, he substitutes for
the vernacular tongue an arbitrary dialect^ called, par
excellence, " Bara Krama/' or the language of honour.
This, as a historian of Java has well remarked, is
a refinement of humiliation that cannot easily be
paralelled, and to .an European must seem almost
imcomprehensible.

In their habits, the Javanese are indolent, and
addicted to sensual enjoyments ; but lax as they are
in principle, and proverbial as they are for idleness
and inactivity, vices that lead them to pass most of
their time in smoking and in the company of their
women, it does not appear that they are addicted to
drinking, or that they ever indulge in the baneful
practice of eating opium, like their neighbours, the
Chinese.

As regards the suitableness of Java as a place of
residence for the Indian invalid, who may merely need
a temporary change of chmate, or whose term of leave
might not allow of his visiting the Cape or Australia,
we are of opinion that within the wide range of what
are called " Indian limits,'* there is no climate to be
found superior to that of Java, or one more easy of
access to the invalid. The great drawback, however,
to Java, as already remarked, consists in the want of
proper accommodation and suitable food in those
particular parts of the island where the climate is

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 116

most salubrious and the scenery most attractive.
Travelling, too, is not prosecuted with the same ease,
and at the same trifling cost, with which it may be
indulged in, in British India ; but still we do not see
why those whose means are not greatly circumscribed,
should not during the dry season — ^viz. from June
until October, march over this island in the same
independent and delightful mode in which they
have been accustomed to travel in our own pro-
vinces.

Provided with an accreditory letter to the Dutch
Government, and without which the traveller could
do nothing, nor move an inch in the country, the
invalid visitor will be enabled to obtain any number
of CooUes he may need* for the transport of his
baggage.

Let him bring along with him a couple of hill
tents, and an up country tent pitcher; let him
furthermore provide himself with a serviceable Mus-
sulman cook, and we see no reason why he should not
travel from one end of Java to the other with the same
ease as if he were traveUing in Bengal. He would
need, of course, an intelligent Malay to act as inter-
preter, and such a servant would easily be found at
the capital. He might also need a couple of Batavian
Syces, for we should advise the invalid to travel on
horseback, as being the least expensive mode, the one

* The Government charge for each Coolie is two and a half cents, or
about one penny.

I 2

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116 RAJdBLES IN

most conducive to healthy and last, yet not least, the
one best calculated to give him the most correct idea
of the country through which he was passing, and
enable him the better to appreciate the picturesque
scenery which he would meet with in his rambles
through this beautiful island.

We had been recommended to reside at the Hotel
der Nederlanden on the occasion of this our second
visit to the metropolis, and we only regret that we
did not come to this house on our first arrival, for we
found both the accommodation and the table very
superior to those of any other establishment in the
island. As a sample of the dinner daily furnished,
take the following : soup (never eatable), fish, roast
turkey, calPs head, boiled tongue, fricandell, chicken
cutlets, sausages, cabinet pudding, stewed apples,
preserved ginger, and fruit ad libitum.

The word, fashionable, or as it is pronounced in
Java, fashion— able, is a very favourite expression
with the Dutch ; at least with those who profess to
speak English. The word in question is almost
invariably applied by the Dutch in the sense of the
term gentlemanlike ; thus the landlord of one of the
hotels in the interior, in describing to us a gentleman
for whom we had a letter of introduction, and upon
whom we were about to call, informed us that the
party in question was " a very fine man, and quite
fashion — able.'' Again, upon another occasion, we
were told, in reference to a heavy demand that had
been made upon our purse by a medical prac-

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 117

titioner, whose services we had found it necessary
to employ, that the conduct of the same practi-
tioner was not fashion — able, and that it would
not be at all unfashion — able if we were not to pay
him.

July 26. — On board the ^ Batavia ;' we cannot bid
adieu to Java without recording our grateful sense of
the exceeding kindness and attention that we have
met with during our stay on the island from the
Enghsh society at Batavia. We have travelled in
many parts of the world, and have met fellow country-
men wherever we have been; but in no quarter of
the globe have we ever experienced such disinterested
kindness, as has been shown to us by the EngUsh
merchants of Java.

We left the roads on the morning of the 26th, with
a fair wind and fine weather, and by two o'clock in
the afternoon we were abreast of, and within a
quarter of a mile of the North Watch, a small island,
and a well known land mark, situated about sixty
miles from Batavia. The captain had gone below to
take his siesta, and the ship's crew and passengers
had done the same, when the repose of the steamer
was suddenly disturbed by a rude shock, which was
imparted to the starboard side of the vessel ; the
Steamer at the same moment toppled heavily to
larboard, and there she lay with her starboard paddle
box clean out of the water, and every now and then
scraping her keel against a hard substance, which we
were not long in discovering was a coral reef. For

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1 1 8 RAMBLES IN;

several minutes the whole ship was in a state of com-
plete consternation; the captain ran backwards and
forwards, and seemed scarcely to credit the astounding
fact that we were upon a rock- The first officer could
only ejaculate the words "Jesu Christo," as most
expressive of the intensity of his astonishment ; and
our Uttle ftiend, the mail agent, looked pale and
thoughtful, as the image of his island bride rose up
before him, and the sad thought crossed his mind
that he might never see her more, nor be permitted
to fold to his paternal bosom those unborn babes,
whom his fancy had already shadowed forth as
sporting around his domestic hearth.

Matters, however, happily did not turn out so
serious as might have been anticipated. The vessel,
after making a few more scrapes, was safely backed
out of her awkward position, and in a very few
minutes we had given the North Watch a pretty con-
siderably wide berth.

We had a somewhat singular dish for our break-
fast on board this vessel, which seemed to be a great
favourite with our Dutch friends ; it consisted of red
herrings, potatoes, onions, and pine apples, with a
curious sauce made of oil, vinegar, sugar and red pepper.
This was the principal dish on table, and we have
thought fit to make mention of it, because we
desire to establish the fact that the diet of the
Dutch is about the most unwholesome under the
sun.

On the evening of the 29th of July we dropped

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JAVA ANP THE STRAITS. 119

our anchor in Singapore Roads, with a feeling of
extreme, satisfaction that we were once more in
a civilized land, and where, amongst other plea-
sures, we could indulge the gratification of worship-
ping God in his own temple — a happiness that
we had no opportunity of indulging whilst in
Java.

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CHAPTER XV.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT SINGAPORE — SMALLNESS OP THE CONGRE-
GATION — TO WHAT CAUSE ATTRIBUTABLE — ^FRUITS OP THE STRAITS

THE MANGUSTIN — THE DURIAN — HOW TO DRIVE A PIG TO

MARKET — COOLNESS OP THE TEMPERATURE IN THE INTERIOR —
NUTMEGS AS AN EXPORT — A DRIVE IN A SINGAPORE PALKI — THE
'PEKIN' steamer — ^ARRIVAL AT PENANG.

August 1. — Heard an admirable discourse this

morning by Mr. Q , the excellent minister of the

Protestant Church, and lamented that so good a
sermon should have had so few hearers; but here,
as in Java, there is not, we grieve to say, that regard
paid to the Lord's day, which one might be led to
expect in a Christian land.

The community of Singapore, as already remarked,
is a community of merchants, whose whole time and
thoughts are absorbed in money making, and in
matters of business : and in the prosecution of these
pursuits, the occasional sacrifice of convenience, or

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 121

even of duty, does not seem to weigh very heavily
upon the conscience.

By some curious coincidence or other, which can
scarcely be the effect of chance alone, the monthly
steamers to and from Europe, as also the steamers on
the direct line from China to Calcutta, invariably
contrive to be at Singapore on a Sunday. It follows,
in consequence, that the Lord's day is not unfre-
quently with the merchants of Singapore the busies
day of the week, being devoted exclusively to
matters of accounts and business letters ; thus,
during two Sundays of the month at least, the
worthy minister of this settlement addresses his dis-
course to a congregation numbering not a hundred
souls.

We do not know exactly where the fault lies, but as
the out going steamer is bound, we understand to
remain for twenty four hours at anchor in the roads
of Singapore, to enable the merchants to complete
their home correspondence, and as Sunday in Chris-
tian England, and everywhere, indeed, where the
Lord's day is respected, is regarded as a " dies non,"
we incline to think that were the mercantile com-
munity to remonstrate against the present objection-
able arrangement, such a representation would meet
with every attention at the hands of the steam com-
pany, and steps be taken to obviate the evil now com-
plained of.

Amongst the fruits of the Straits, the mangustin
has always been deemed pre-eminent, nor do we ever

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remember to have heard the slightest difference of
opinion in regard to the merits of this justly
esteemed fruit. We have eaten the very best speci-
mens of the mangustin during our residence here, but
much as we approve of the exquisite delicacy and
flavour of the fruit, still it has failed to come up to
our expectations ; and we should not hesitate to
accord both to the Bombay mangoe, and to the pine
apple of Singapore, a higher place amongst tropical
fruits, than we would give to the far famed man-
gustin.

Another fruit indigenous to the Straits, and for
which most persons, the natives more especially,
entertain a remarkable predilection, is the durian.
Of this fruit Dr. Ward, in his " Medical Topography
of the Straits," observes ; " This fruit is well known
from the description of travellers; those who have
overcome the prejudice excited by the disagreeable
foetid odour of the external shell, reckon it delicious.
From experience I can pronounce it the most luscious
and the most fascinating fruit in the universe;
the pulp covering the seeds, the only part eaten,
excels the finest custards which could be prepared by
either Ude or Kitchener.''

We made a great effort to eat this fruit a few days
ago. There was nothing amiss with it when it was
first placed before us, but no sooner had we divided
the shell that holds that delicious pulp, whose ex-
quisite flavour, as we are told, no human art could
equal, than our olfactory nerves were assailed

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 23

with such an effluvia, as well nigh scared us from
our propriety. We could go no further; we
had not the courage to penetrate deeper into those
hidden properties which render the durian, as
Dr. Ward assiures us, "the most fascinating of
fruits."

The durian may be all that it is represented to be,
it may equal the finest custard of an " Ude or a
Kitchener,'' but we are not ashamed to admit that
oiu* natural repugnance for oflFensive smells must ever
prevent our acquiring a relish for this popular
fruit.

We doubt much if even the mangustin itself would
have acquired the celebrity it has done if it was
reared upon a dunghill, or if one could eat it only
amid the fowl and offensive atmosphere of a common
sewer.

It is not often that one gets a wrinkle from a
Chinaman, but if he can do little else, he knows how
to drive a pig to market, which is more than any one
in England does. Who ever heard of a pig in
England reaching his destination by any other road
than the opposite one to that by which he set out ?
Who ever heard of a person, of even the most
obliging temper, volunteering to convey a pig to
market, purely out of friendship for the owner? or
what old woman is there now aUve, in any single
parish of the kingdom, who at some period or other
of her life has not been taken off her legs, or been
rendered exceedingly uncomfortable, by the rotatory

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propensities of the British pig ? We always thought
it was the nature of the animal, but we no longer
think so.

In England we must humour and amuse our pig,
or he will not budge an inch, but a Chinaman has
neither time nor inclination for such an occupation ;
so when he takes his pig to market he merely passes
a thin cord through either ear of the animal, in the
form of a loop, to which a piece of rope is attached,
which the Chinaman holds in his hand ; in the other
he carries a thin cane, but it is rarely needed, as the
pig proceeds along the road as quietly and decorously
as if he were going to a funeral. We have seen
scores of pigs taken to market in this way, and never
saw or heard of an instance of misbehaviour on the
part of any one of them.

If one does not mind being devoured by mosqui-
toes, a residence in the country will be found more
agreeable than a residence in the town, the tem-
perature of the interior being some three degrees
cooler than the temperature of the town. During
this, our second visit to the island, we were so
fortunate as to meet with a furnished house
in the country, in which we resided for several
weeks.

Here we always found a blanket indispensable at
night, which we never found to be the case in the
town; but though the nights and mornings in the
country are always cool, the days are fully as hot as
they are in town. We frequently observed the ther-

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JAVA AND THE STBAITS. 125

mometer rise to 87^ at noon, after standing so low as
TS"" in the early part of the day.

It is a somewhat singular feature in the climate of
Singapore, that those spots are the healthiest where
the jungle is thickest ; and those spots the least so,
from which the jungle has been entirely removed. A
great deal of land has been cleared within the past
few years, and numberless new plantations are spring-
ing up year after year. The removal of the jungle,
however, is said already to have aflFected the health of
the settlement, and is assigned as the principal cause
of the comparative unhealthiness of the island of
late years, as compared with the almost complete
immunity from disease which it enjoyed upon its
first becoming a British possession.

Nutmegs form the chief, if not the only export of
the island. There are at present, we learn, eighty
thousand bearing trees on Singapore, which, at the
low average of four pounds of nutmeg, and one pound
of mace per tree, would yield annually three hundred
and twenty thousand pounds of the former, and
eighty thousand pounds of the latter.

Our last drive at Singapore was likely to have
proved a somewhat serious one. We had driven to
the top of the Government Hill, in order to learn
whether there was any news of the ^ Pekin,' in which
we were about to proceed to Penang ; when finding
that it still wanted an hour of our dinner time, we
were induced to extend our drive. We chose the
road leading into the country to the westward of the

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Government HUl. After driving about a mile upon
this road, we turned back at the suggestion of our
good lady, who thought the pony had had work
enough. Before reaching the foot of the Govern-
ment Hill from this side, there is a long and rather
steep descent, which only terminates within a quarter
of a mile of the town. On commencing this descent,
the pony began to step out rather freely ; but when,
from a very fast trot, he broke into a gallop, we
deemed it advisable to signify to the driver that we
were not desirous of quickening our pace; but not
receiving any reply from the Syce, and finding that
the pony still continued to gallop furiously down the
hill, we ventured to look forth from the front window
of the carriage, in order to see how matters really
stood. It then became apparent to us that the pony
was running away, and that the Syce had no more
command over him than if the reins had been in the
hands of a newly bom babe. Of this fact the Syce
himself seemed also to have become aware, for he
suddenly sprung off the palki with the view, we
presume, of seizing the animal's head ; but the
impetus communicated to his descent by the rapid
pace at which we were going, proved too much for
him, and he came to the ground with stunning force ;
at the same instant the reins snapped in twain, and
the pony, finding himself unchecked, seemed only to
redouble his speed. We did not hke the look of
things at all ; there was an ugly salt water marsh on
one side of the road, with a fall of several feet, on the

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 127

other, there were several deep and irregularly
shaped gravel pits, and in front, and distant scarcely
a couple of hundred yards, was the entrance to one
of the most crowded parts of the town. There were
scores of Chinamen passing along the road, to whom
we hoisted signals of distress; but none of them
seemed to comprehend the awkwardness of our
position, or if they did, none seemed to trouble them-
selves about it.

We felt that as long as we had a straight road
before us, and, as sailors would say, plenty of sea
room we were comparatively safe ; but we were now
close to the town, where the road, after passing over
a bridge, takes a turn at right angles, and leads by a
few more such turns to the hotel. We knew that
this turn could not be made at such a pace as
we were going without the carriage being over-
turned.

We were saved, however, from such a catastrophe,
and from all further danger by the dexterity of a
brawny Chinaman, who seeing how matters stood
with us, made . a successful clutch at the pony's
head, which had the effect of checking him, and he
was immediately secured by other passers by. The
poor Syce was la good deal cut and bruised ; but as
he was transgressing orders by leaving the pony's
head within the precints of the town, he will probably
find it to his advantage to get well as quickly as
possible, and to say no more on the subject than he
can help.

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128 RAMBLES IN

The * Pekin/ in point of speed, does not equal
either the 'Ganges* or the * Singapore/ but still she
is by no means a slow boat, and as she landed us
at Penang within forty hours from the time of
leaving her moorings at Singapore, we consider that
we have no cause to complain of her rate of
steaming.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 129

CHAPTER XVI.

MOSqUlTOES — ME. FORTUNE'S MOSqUITOB TOBACCO — THE PBNANG HILL —

THE LIONS OF PBNANG THE GKEAT TEBE — WATERFALL — CLDiATE

AND TEMPERATURE OF PENANG HILL IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEM-
BER — A CASE OF AMOK — PRODUCTS AND POPULATION OF THE
ISLAND.

Mosquitoes abound in the Straits, and as Pun-
kahs are rarely or ever employed either at Penang or
Singapore, it is no easy matter to escape from the
attacks of this most troublesome and most annoying
of all the insect tribe.

Mr. Fortune, in his late work on China, speaks of
a preparation that is successfully employed by the
Chinese for expelling mosquitoes from their dwelling
houses. He calls it mosquitoe tobacco, and informs
us that it is made of the shavings of resinous woods
mixed up with some combustible matter. The pre-
paration in question is smeared over their bamboo
canes of two or three feet in length, which are then
left to dry. One of these canes is then suspended

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130 BAMBLE8 IN

to the ceiling of the room from which the mosquitoes
are to be expelled, and being ignited at the lower end,
it will bum, if required, for several hours together.
Such is the dislike that the mosquitoe entertains for
the peculiar odour of this preparation, that a very few
minutes suffice to drive every insect out of the room.
If the benefits of this discovery could be extended
to India, what an inestimable blessing would be
conferred upon the country. If Calcutta, with its
countless swarms of mosquitoes, is pronounced by
every young lady who sees it to be the most charming
city in the world, what terms would she employ to
denote her admiration of it were the buzz of this
blood sucking insect no more to be heard within its
walls ?

As we had none of Mr. Fortune's grand specific
with us, and as the heat in the plain was most oppres-
sive, we were glad to have it in our power to quit the
town a few hours after landing for the cooler atmo-
sphere of the Penang Hill. A drive of about four
miles brought us to the foot of the hill, where we
exchanged our wheeled carriage for a couple of chairs,
the ascent up the mountain not being practicable for
carriages. The distance from the foot of the hill to
the flag staff is about three and a half miles, and
the ascent is usually made within the hour. The
elevation of the highest part of the Government Hill
is two thousand four hundred and sixty feet above
the sea, and the average elevation of the different
bungalows is perhaps two hundred feet lower.

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JAVA AND THE STBAITS. 131

The change from the intense heat of the plain to
a temperature of 70"* was very agreeable ; and when
we awoke on the following morning, and found our-
selves nestling under the snug folds of three whitney
blankets, we could scarcely realize the actuality of
the change which a few hours had produced in our
feelings.

Should the visitor contemplate a lengthened resi-
dence on the hill, he would do well to provide himself
with a supply of books, for he will find neither society
nor amusement on the mountain, and will be depend-
ant solely upon his own resources for the means of
filling up his time. A very few days will serve to
make him acquainted with the different rides and
walks of the neighbourhood; and, unless he possess
some resource of amusement within himself, he will
probably tire of the Penang Hill in less than a week.

The telegraph on the hill is under the charge of an
invalid serjeant, who receives a monthly salary of
thirty dollars for signalling and reporting to the
authorities below, the ten or twelve vessels that touch
at Penang in the course of the month ; but as this
duty does not involve a very great deal of time or
labour, and as the serjeant dislikes to see the telegraph
doing nothing, he turns it to a useful account, by
making it the channel of communication betwixt the
families on the hill and their friends below, and as a
means not unfrequently of acquainting the good
people in the town with the occasional domestic or
social wants of the upper regions.

K 2

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132 RAMBLES IN

Shortly after our arrival on the hill, we happened
to stroll up to the flag staflF, when, seeing the seijeant
unusually busy, we were tempted to inquire what
vessel was coming in.

" It aint a vessel coming in, Sir,'' replied he ;
" we're only a signalling up a sucking pig and half a

dozen beer for Mrs. B . Can I do anything for

you. Sir.?"

Not having any present occasion for the Serjeant's
offices, we thanked him for the oflFer of his services,
of which, we said, we should only be too happy
to avail ourselves whenever an occasion presented
itself.

The lions of Penang are very few, being limited to
the " Great Tree" and the waterfall, both of which
form the scene of frequent pic nic parties during the
dry season. The first of these has some claim to its
title, for it is, without doubt, a large tree ; but its
peculiarity consists not so much in the greatness of
its girth, as in the diameter of the tree at a height of
fifty feet, being the same as the diameter at the
base. Another pecuUarity of the /^ Great Tree" is,
that it rises to the enormous height of one hundred
and twenty feet from the ground, without throwing
out a single branch or leaf. The height of the tree
is one hundred and forty three feet, and its greatest
girth is thirty three feet.

There is a small bungalow erected on the spot for
the convenience of those who may visit the tree,
where the visitor can rest and refresh himself

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 133

with greater comfort than if left to recruit "al
fresco/'

The waterfall is a very poor affair, and is scarcely
worthy of a visit ; it is situated within a few yards
only of the road that leads up the mountain, and it
owes its importance solely, we suspect, to the circum-
stance of its being so conveniently accessible to the
frequenters of the hill.

We have been agreeably surprised in the climate of
the Penang Hill. We had been led to expect at this
period of the year, which is said to be the worst,
nothing but rain or fog ; we had been told that these
fogs, in spite of closed doors and windows, would
find their way into every comer of our house, and
that our very noses would be covered with mildew on
rising from our beds. We were assured that gleams
of sunshine were like angels' visits, few and far
between ; and that even Bengal, in the height of the
rains, was preferable to Penang in the month of Sep-
tember,

We have now resided here during four weeks, and
in the course of this period we have had but one wet
day, and perhaps some half a dozen showers besides ;
but these rarely lasted beyond a few minutes, when
the sky again cleared, and the sun shone brightly
forth. A light vapoury fog would occasionally hang
over the higher parts of the mountain ; but it seldom
extended ftirther down the hill. The temperature
was very delightful during the whole period of our
stay, the thermometer ranging from 69° to 76^* of
Fahrenheit.

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134 RAMBLES IN

We have passed several seasons in the different
Sanitaria of the Himalayahs, and for weeks and
weeks together have seen the rains in those regions
descending in one continued torrent, and the thick
clouds forcing their way into evei^y corner of our
house, whilst we have sat crouching over our pine
wood fire, vainly striving to find shelter from the
penetrating blast. The visitor, however, is repaid in
some measure for the discomforts of the Himalayan
rains by the heavenly weather that succeeds that
season; for who that has ever passed a season at
Simlah or Mussoorie, can ever forget the glorious
days that follow the close of the rains in those hills,
or can have failed to experience the exhilarating in-
fluence of a Himalayan October ? Penang can boast of
no such weather as that, but during the prevalence of
the rainy season we have not the slightest hesitation
in declaring our infinite preference of the climate of
Penang to that of any single station in the Himalayan
Hills.

The term amok, or, as we call it, a muck, has long
possessed an EngUsh signification, being used to
denote the highest state of frenzy of which the
human mind is susceptible, and into which mankind
are sometimes thrown by a sense of real or imagined
wrong. Happily, such outbursts are not a common
feature in man's nature, but, as far as we know, are
characteristic of one people only — ^viz., the Malays of
the Indian Archipelago.

Human punishments, efficacious as they generally
are as a check upon crime, are least so as regards

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 135

those offences which are the result of sudden passion,
in the commission of which there is no time given to
the perpetrator for reflection; and we must, there-
fore, look more to the effects of education than to any
pimitive measure that human wisdom can devise, for
the correction of that terrible idiosyncrsay which
renders the Malay, above every other people
we know of, so peculiarly liable to those fearful
outbursts of fury known under the name of amok.
Once that a Malay is under the influence of this
most dreadful of human passions, he falls to the
level of a brute; his reasoning powers forsake him
entirely, and with glaring eye and foaming mouth,
he directs his rage indiscriminately against all around
him. Like the wounded tiger, he seems to thirst
only for blood ; and it is only when overpowered by
numbers, and not till several have fallen victims to
his unrestrained fury, that his blood stained creese
is wrenched from his grasp, and he is rendered in-
capable of doing further mischief.

Instances of amok are not, we believe, so frequent
as they were ; but still the criminal annals of these
settlements continue to be annually stained by cases
of the kind. The following dreadful case occurred
not three months since on this island. We give
the account verbatim from the columns of the
" Penang Gazette.*'

"One of those ferocious cases of amok, which
blacken the criminal records of this settlement, oc-
curred at Bayan Lepas on the 14th instant. A Malay

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136 RAMBLES IN

named Jusoh, who had been absent at Bali Pulo,
returned to his house about seven o'clock in the
evening of that day. He found his wife enter-
taining a large party, whom she had invited without
his knowledge. He was annoyed at this, expressed
his displeasure, and after some angry words had
passed between them he left the house. About ten
o'clock he again entered the house, when the quarrel
was renewed. The wife spoke harshly and abusively,
and so irritated him that he struck her, which caused
the visitors to interfere. On this the enraged hus-
band drew his knife, and stabbed every one who was
within his reach, until he was overpowered and
secured. Two men were killed on the spot ; three
other men and two women were severely wounded.
The case was reported to the Superintendent of
Police at daylight next morning. After communi-
cating with the Coroner, he proceeded to Bayan Lepas,
and investigated the matter. A Coroner's inquest
was held on the spot early the same day, and a
verdict of murder returned against the prisoner.
We understand that two of the wounded persons
are not expected to live."

The only exports of Penang are spices. Of these
the clove alone seems to require a certain elevation
above the sea to enable it to attain a state of per-
fection; accordingly the cultivation of this elegant
little shrub is confined exclusively, we believe, to the
elevated slopes of the Penang Hill. The coffee plant
also thrives in the greatest luxuriance upon the hill.

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JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 137

In no part of Java did we meet with any specimens
of this plant that could be compared with those we
have lately seen on the Penang momitain. The
berry of the latter is at least half as large again as
that of the Java plant. It does not form an export,
however; the operation of gathering and cleaning
the berry being attended with too much expense to
admit of its even being remunerative as an article of
commerce.

The population of Penang, according to a census
taken in 1829, consisted at that period of thirty four
thousand seven hundred and seventy five souls. By
a recent census, and which is beheved to be tolerably
accurate, the population of the island now amounts
to forty six thousand two hundred and ninety five
souls.

On board the ^Shanghai,' October 1. — After
spending a most agreeable month amid the healthful
breezes of the Penang Hill, we embarked on the
26th ultimo onboard the ^Shanghai' on our return
to India.

The ^ Shanghai' is considerably smaller than the
* Pekin,' in which we made the journey from Singa-
pore to Penang, and her fittings and accommodation
are very inferior to those of the latter vessel ; but we
found everything very comfortable notwithstanding,
and were gratified to observe, during our short
voyage, that the Captain, as well as his officers,
made it their study to render the passage as agreeable
to us as possible.

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