THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Ex Ltbris C. K. OGDEN .'* * r ZIEKE REIZIGER; Ml OR, RAMBLES IN JAYA AND THE STRAITS. IN 1852. BY A BENGAL CIVILIAN Illustrations, LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. TEIGNMOUTH: GEORGE HENRY CROYDON, ROYAL LIBRARY. CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK AND co. BOMBAY: THACKEB, AND CO. M.DCCC.LIII. Printed by E. and G. H. Croydon, Royal Library, Teignmouth. 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 regard, by her attached son, THE AUTHOR. JUNE, 1853. ILLUSTRATIONS MAP OF THE ISLAND OF JAVA .... TofttCe Title. PINANG, FROM RICHMOND HILL .... Page 8 SINGAPORE, FROM THE EAST SIDE OF GOVERNMENT HILL . . 30 A SKETCH FROM CUNNING'S BUKIT, SINGAPORE ... 13 JAVANESE MAN AND WOMAN OF THE POORER, CLASS . . .20 DUTCH CHURCH AT BATAVIA ..... 34 JAVANESE COACHMAN . . . . . .42 THE SALAH MOUNTAIN, FROM THE BUITENZORG HOTEL . . 51 MOSQUE AT BANDONG . . . . . .55 THE TEA PLANT ...... 57 THE COFFEE PLANT . *. . . . .66 THE SOEMADANG HOTEL, FBOM THE BBIDGE ... 71 A WOMAN OF CHERIBON . . . . . .73 CHERIBON, AS SEEN FROM THE STEAMER ... 74 PASSENGRANG AT BOMIAGOE . . . . .77 A VILLAGE NEAR KUBOOMAN ..... 86 HEAD OF THE FIGURE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SKETCH OF BOHO-BODOR TEMPLE, AND FIGURE NEAR BORO-BODOR ... 93 INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF TJANDIE . . . .94 THE ENTRANCE TO BORO-BODOR TEMPLE TJANDIE, DAPOR, NEAR BORO-BODOR THE NUTMEG, JUST BEFORE IT DROPS .... 125 SINGAPORE, FROM THE WEST SIDE OF GOVERNMENT HILL . . 126 A SKETCH ON THE PENANG HILL .... 130 A SKETCH ON THE PENANG HILL . ... 136 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 originally 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 fill 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 viii 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. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page AUTHOR'S ILLNESS PERPLEXITIES OF THE MOOFUSSIL DOCTORS, AND SIMPLE MODE OF SOLVING THE SAME JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA EMBARK ON BOARD THE ORIENTAL AND PENINSULAR COMPANY'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 II. ARRIVAL AT SINGAPORE THE NEW HARBOUR PICTURESttUE 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 ttUEEN'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 EAR RHIO STRAITS OF BANCA DETENTION AT MUITOK RUN OCT OF COAL ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA. 19 CONTENTS CHAPTER IV. Page BATAVIA, APPROACH INSALUBRITY HOTELS IN JAVA DUTCH COOKERY PLACES OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT MODE OF LIFE AT BATAVIA EUROPEAN PORTION OF THE TOWN ', COMPARATIVE SALUBRITY OF SINGULAR STYLE OF DRESS OF THE BATAVIAN LADIES MORNING COSTUME OF THE GENTLE- MEN JAVA WASHERMEN 30 CHAPTER V. TRAVELLING IN JAVA COST OF POST-HORSES HOW PROCURABLE PRICE OF A TRAVELLING-CARRIAGE LEAVE BATAVIA 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 FROM THE TOP OF THE PASS TJIPANAS REACH TJANJORE HOTEL AT THAT PLACE CROSS THE TJEETARAM, AND ARRIVE AT BANDONG THE MONT- PELIER OF JAVA 50 CHAPTER Vn. BANDONG, NEAT AND CLEANLY APPEARANCE OF JAVANESE HATS SHOPS EATING BOOTHS VIEW OF BANDONG FROM THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE VIL- LAGE MR. L 'S TEA PLANTATION NATURE OF HIS CONTRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT VISIT THE WATERFALL OUR LANDLADY A CURIOUS PASSAGE IN HER CURIOUS HISTORY CONVERSATION AT THE TABLE D'HOTE THE UPAS TREE 55 CHAPTER Vm. DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE OF BANDONG ABOMINABLE DIET, AND STILL MORE ABOMINABLE COOKERY VISIT THE TEA PLANTATIONS OF TJEMBOLEYUT LEMBANG MR. PHILIPPEAN'S COFFEE ESTABLISHMENT DELICIOUS CLIMATE THE REVENUE SYSTEM IN JAVA PRODUCTIVE POWER OF THE COFFEE PLANT ESTIMATE OF RAFFLES TOO HIGH VISIT THE CRATER ON THE TANKERHAN PROW DINE WITH SOME CHINESE. GENTLEMEN MADAMB PFEIFFER LEAVE BANDONG, SOMADANG DESCRIPTION OF ARRIVE AT CHERIBON 64 CONTENTS. Xi CHAPTEE IX. Page WOMEN OF CHERIBON HOTELS AND HORSES DETERIORATE TAGAL A PAS- SENGRANG THE BENGAL AYAH THE REGENT OF TAGAL; EXCHANGE VISITS WITH VISIT THE TOMB OF THE SUSUNAN TAGAL-WANGI DINE WITH THE RESIDENT LEAVE TAGAL JAVANESE HOSPITALITY BOMIAJOE JOURNEY TO BANJOEMAS UNHEALTHY POSITION OF THE LATTER PLACE EDIBLE BIRDS' NESTS 73 CHAPTEE 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 MAGELANG . . 81 CHAPTEE XL THE RESIDENT AT MAGELANG ; UNCOURTEOUS 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 CHAPTEE XII. 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 HAD THE ISLAND REMAINED A BRITISH POSSESSION, AND PROBABLE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OF SYSTEM UNDER THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT ... 98 CHAPTEE XIII. 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 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. Page THE " BARA KRAMA," OR LANGUAGE OF HONOUR CHARACTER OF THE JAVA- NESE SUITABLENESS OF JAVA AS A PLACE OF RESIDENCE FOR THE INDIAN INVALID THE HOTEL DER NEDERLANDEN 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 CHAPTER XV. THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT SINGAPORE SMALLNESS 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. MOSttUITOES MR. FORTUNE'S MOSdTJITOE TOBACCO THE PENANG HILL THE LIONS OF PENANG THE GREAT TREE WATERFALL CLIMATE AND TEM- PERATURE OF PENANG HILL IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER A CASE OF AMOK PRODUCTS AND POPULATION OF THE ISLAND 129 RAMBLES IN JAYA AND THE STRAITS. CHAPTER I. AUTHOR'S ILLNESS PERPLEXITIES OF THE MOOFUSSIL DOCTORS, AND SIMPLE MODE OF SOLVING THE SAME JOURNEY TO CALCUTTA EMBARK ON BOARD THE ORIENTAL AND PENINSULAR COMPANY'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. " 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 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 with 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 really 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." 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 fury 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 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 Moofussil 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 voy agings 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 kuots 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 5 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, the 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 w r e 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 the 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 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 cedematous symptoms would continue to increase to a distressing extent, and under no system 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- 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 from Cal- cutta. The entrance to the harbour is very pretty, and from 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 corner, 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 hill is at all 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 invalid, 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 fails to 67, the atmosphere is always sur- [W] V & 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. 10 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER II. ARRIVAL AT SINGAPORE THE NEW HARBOUR PICTURESQUE APPEARANCE OP THE TOWN AND ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE GOVERNMENT HILL HOTEL AND BOARDING-HOUSES, THEIR CHARACTER, 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 S5 feb QnJ] JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 1 of the town and shipping, and several of the adjacent hills, on the tops of which may be seen some mer- chant's cheerful villa, where, after the toil and heat of the day, the planter is wont to solace himself amid the healthful influence of the cool land wind. There are several hotels at Singapore, the best of which is the London Hotel, kept by Mr. Du Trouquoy, a native of Jersey; but even in this establishment, there is great room for improvement. The hotel consists of two upper roomed buildings, one of which is styled the Family Hotel. Neither house is com- fortable ; and the bath room accommodation is espe- cially defective, the whole of the baths being public, and situated in a range of buildings altogether distinct from the hotel. Under the very windows of both hotels is a long tiled building, called a bowling alley. This pandemonium is lit up every night, and is filled with the townspeople and others, who play at bowls and drink brandy and water until a late hour of the night. The alley, as it is called, is very profitable to the proprietor ; but it is a great nuisance to the inmates of the hotel. Both hotels face the sea, and command an excellent view of the shipping. But the houses on the beach are not considered the healthiest, and the residents at night time make a practice of closing their Venetians in order to exclude the sea breeze, which they consider to be very in- jurious to health, especially during the prevalence of the southwest monsoon. Considering the exorbitant prices of even the com- 1 2 EAMBLES IN monest necessaries of life, the hotel charges cannot be considered high. The charge for a single person breakfasting and dining at the public 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 different 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 - lE' s jy . ' 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 daily, and enjoy the cool sea breeze. The scene is enlivened twice during- o 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 office 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 accomplished 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 resort 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 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 arrivals, 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 w r ere 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 lighted 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 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 suffered 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- 16 RAMBLES IN table, so full 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 public enter- tainment, in the strictest sense of the w r ord, I consider myself quite at liberty to speak publicly 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 affects 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 public 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 during the southwest monsoon, is 81. In such a JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 7 climate, the invalid cannot expect to gain strength, and he may consider himself fortunate if he does not lose ground. To those who 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 inability 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, 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 19 CHAPTER III. DEPARTURE FROM SINGAPORE THE DUTCH STEAMER 'JAVA* ACCOMMO- DATION AND STYLE OP LIVING ON BOARD THE GOVERNMENT MAIL AGENT AND HIS BRIDE THE PASSENGER WITH ONLY ONE EAR RHIO STRAITS OF BANCA DETENTION AT MUITOK RUN OUT OF COAL ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA. ON the 1st of June the mail bags from Holland having been duly transferred from the Oriental Com- pany's steamer e Matta' to the Dutch steamer ' Java/ the latter having got up her steam, weighed anchor, and with a goodly freight of passengers, ourselves amongst the number, sailed out of Singapore Roads on her return 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 20 11AMBLES 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 applied 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 affairs. 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 WCDMiiM, W.Spreat.Lifli. Ml AO E) 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 fully 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, 22 B AMBLES 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 purposely 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 off, 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 iu 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 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 off 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, 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 retuni 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 difficult 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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 light 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 off " 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 w r ere detained in consequence at the anchorage ground during an entire day. The coaling might have been effected 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- 26 RAMBLES 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 deliver at the govern- ment stores. Nothing whatever grows at Mintok, and the island is dependent on Batavia for supplies 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 April. 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 sailing ; 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 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 affairs, 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 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 off 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. 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 replied, in a tone of complete indifference, and as if it were a matter of common occurrence, " Si manca il fuoco, Signore." 30 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER IV. BATAVIA, APPROACH INSALUBRITY HOTELS IN JAVA DUTCH COOKERY PLACES OP 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 effects 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- 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 that falls 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 32 RAMBLES IN 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. Carriages 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 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 English 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 diffused 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 customary 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 or a saltspoon is unknown in Java ; and even at the Governor General's table, D 34 RAMBLES IN these useful appurtenances of the dinner table are not deemed necessary. The Batavians are very fond of gaiety, and strive to forget the depressing effects 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 climate. 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 35 affair, and unworthy of the event it is intended to commemorate. The Batavian ladies dress with 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 that indispensable 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 every 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 servant, bearing towels and certain other "et ceteras" that are used by ladies when 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 had 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 36 RAMBLES IN cent display of their persons that the Dutch ladies evince their disregard for delicacy 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. o 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 with 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 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 office 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 38 11 AMBLES IN 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 39 CHAPTER V. TRAVELLING IN JAVA COST OF POST-HORSES HOW PROCURABLE PRICE OP A TRAVELLING-CARRIAGE LEAVE BATAVIA 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. 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 Batavia, 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 40 RAMBLES IN being withheld. The applicant 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 unknown, 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 41 The visitor will find little difficulty in providing himself with a travelling carriage ; every description of vehicle being procurable at Batavia, from the well- padded britzka, down to the island built char-a-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 with 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- dred 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 o 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 42 RAMBLES IN ^months. The Bengal Ayah alone, who sat crouching in a remote corner 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 further 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 43 soon changed 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 hotel, 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, who were then in the hotel, having been previously taken on the question, it had been ruled unanimously, we were 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 functionary. We were received by the Secretary with infinite politeness, and were informed that every facility would 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 dine at Govern- 44 RAMBLES IN 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-a-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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 45 adopting the continental fashion, 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 ourselves standing o 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 we had taken into dinner, before she had gained the drawing room, when, hastily apologizing for our apparent rudeness, we gave her our arm to conduct her to the Reception Hall. 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 ladies 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 fumes of tobacco smoke. We are no smokers, and never were, o we joined the ladies. In the course of the evening, we were requested to join the Governor General's whist table ; but we declined the honour, preferring the charms of the music room to the less agreeable recreation of a game at whist. We were much pleased with our reception at Government 46 RAMBLES 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 arrh 7 al 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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 inquired 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 from a hovel at the roadside, and endeavoured by signs and other expedients to make him understand that we wished to get to Buitenzorg. Under this man's guidance, we continued to walk for about two miles further, in the heaviest rain to which we have almost ever been exposed. When, at length, we had the happiness to distinguish lights, we shortly after- 48 RAMBLES 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 offer 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 climate 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 49 of rare shrubs they contain. We were much dis- appointed, however, in the collection of flowers, of which there was but a very indifferent 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. 50 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER VI. LEAVE BUITENZORG JAVA POSTING- ASCEND THE MEGAMENDON VIEW FROM THE TOP OP TliE PASS TJIPANAS REACH TJANJORE HOTEL AT THAT PLACE CROSS THE TJEETARAM, AND ARRIVE AT BANDONG THE MONTPELIER OF 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 full 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 little 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 delicious the fragrance of the countless wild flowers that adorn the road side banks, scenting the air with a perfume 1=3 M c= a JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 51 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 lie 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 effected ; 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 E 2 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 uneatable ; 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 little English, she told us, but this little was scarcely enough to admit of a conversation being long main- tained, being limited to this : " very ;" " how d'ye do ;" " yes ;" " no ;" and " good morning." We were not sorry to emerge from the gates of JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 53 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 necessary 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 down the hill. The approach to this stream is very 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 poAver- 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 from the Tjeetaram to be the only really dangerous part of the road between Batavia and Bandong ; and the most courageous per- son might, perhaps, be pardoned for feeling somewhat 54 RAMBLES 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. m .. si JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 55 CHAPTER VII. BANDONG, NEAT AND CLEANLY APPEARANCE OF JAVANESE HATS SHOPS EATING BOOTHS VIEW OF BANDONG FROM THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE VILLAGE MR. L '& TEA PLANTATION NATURE OP HIS CON- TRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT VISIT THE WATERFALL OUR LAND- LADY A CURIOUS PASSAGE IN HER CURIOUS HISTORY CONVERSA- TION AT THE TABLE D'HOTE THE UPAS TREE. JUNE 22. Drove for an hour through the streets and environs 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 56 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 coating 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 risolles 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 coffee 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 W Spreat. Lith . JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 57 ascended one or other of the heights above Bandona". ^ O * that a good view of the village is obtained. At an elevation of a few hundred feet above the town, the traveller will 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 will 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 already 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. 58 EAMBLES IN several descriptions of teas, is seventy-five cents, or about one shilling and a half- penny 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 59 travelling ! Dutch is not a language for which we 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 peculiar delight, 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 w r as gathered to his fathers. This gentleman, it seems, however estimable he may have been in the several relations of private life, 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- 60 RAMBLES 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 lips 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 vou. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 6 1 hair, and gold bracelets on her arms, looking 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 elicit 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. 62 RAMBLES IN 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 63 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. 04 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER VIII. DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE OF BANDONG ABOMINABLE DIET, AND STILL MORE ABOMINABLE COOKERY VISIT THE TEA PLANTATIONS OF TJEMBOLE- YUT LEMBANG MR. PHILIPPEAN^S COFFEK ESTABLISHMENT DE- LICIOUS CLIMATE THE REVENUE SYSTEM IN JAVA PRODUCTIVE POWER OF THE COFFEE PLANT ESTIMATE OF RAFFLES TOO HIGH VISIT THE CRATER ON THE TANKERHAN PROW DINE WITH SOME CHINESE GENTLEMEN MADAME PFE1FFER LEAVE BANDONG SOMA- DANG, DESCRIPTION OF ARRIVE AT CHERIBON. BANDONG well deserves, we think, the character it bears of being the Montpelier of Java. During the fortnight we were there, the weather was truly delightful, the thermometer never rising above 75o at the hottest period of the day, and frequently falling 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 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 unsuited 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 Tjembooliyut 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 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 largest 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 clime, 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. Philippean 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- livery 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 TTEI IE (SIFIPIE3E IPILA "W. Spread. Lith. 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 coffee, the amount being determined by the district officers at the commencement of the year. The price paid to the cultivator for his coffee is absurdly small, being only three rupees per pikul of one hundred and thirty three pounds English, or about one half-penny per pound; the usual selling price of the same coffee 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 coffee that the cultivator may deliver at the Government store house, he is entitled to receive ten rupees. Raffles has greatly over estimated, we are told, the productive powers of the coffee 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 68 RAMBLES IN the average produce per tree does not much exceed a quarter of a pound, and that, according to the present system of planting, two hundred and fifty trees can be grown upon a bao of land. Mr. Philip- pean has upon his three plantations no less a number than one million one hundred thousand trees, the gross annual return of which he estimates at about two hundred and seventy five thousand pounds. Formerly it was the custom for the native grower to clean and dry the berry ; but these processes are now exclusively performed through European agency, under direct contracts with Government. The con- tractor engages to furnish to Government one pikul of clean coffee out of every six pikuls that may be brought by the grower to his mill ; and for every pikul so furnished, the contractor receives from Government two rupees ; and should he be enabled to supply out of the six pikuls any larger quantity than the one pikul for which he is bound by his contract, he is paid for such excess at the rate of six rupees and seventy five cents the pikul. Mr. Philip- pean, we believe, is enabled generally to furnish one pikul of the dried berry out of every five and a quarter pikuls that are brought to him by the growers. As far as we can learn, there seems no reason why coffee should not be grown in Java quite equal in quality to the finest specimens of Bourbon or Mocha coffee ; but here little or no attention is bestowed upon the cultivation of the plant. After the trees are planted, they are left to take care of JAVA AND THE ST11AITS. 69 themselves, and suffered to grow as they will. An interval of from six to eight feet only being allowed between the plants, the sun and air can never reach them, and a Java coffee garden, therefore, has all the appearance of an unreclaimed jungle. The dadap or silk cotton tree, which is invariably planted along with the coffee plants, in order to screen the latter from the sun and wind, is admirably suited for this purpose, being a large, yet not too thickly leafed tree, and attaining usually a height of twenty or twenty five feet. It is strange that Government does not turn its attention a little more than it has hitherto done to the subject of improving the coffee cultivation on this fine island ; but it seems quite indifferent about pro- ducing a superior description of coffee, and is quite content so long as it continues to realize a certain amount of revenue from the cultivation of the product in question. JUNE 29. With the thermometer down to 60, we started this morning to visit a famous crater on the summit of the Tankubanprow ; it is a somewhat fatiguing walk of about five miles, an ascent the whole way. The visitor is made aware of his approach to the crater by the gradual cessation of vegetation, the absence of all sounds of life, and by the many scorched and leafless trees by which he finds himself sur- rounded. The basin containing the crater is about three miles in circumference, and the visitor looks down upon it from a height of several hundred feet. 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 bubbling 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 Pfeiffer. 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 0=3 JAVA AND THE STRAITS, 71 hill, before you descend to this station, is highly picturesque, and would afford 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 hundred 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 until 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 72 RAMBLES IN 9 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. W SprcatLith JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 73 CHAPTER IX. WOMEN OF CHERIBON HOTELS AND HORSES DETERIORATE TAGAL A PASSENGRANG THE BENGAL AYAH THE REGENT OF TAGAL, EX- CHANGE VISITS WITH VISIT THE TOMB OF THE SUSUNAN TAGAL- WANGI DINE WITH THE RESIDENT LEAVE TAGAL JAVANESE HOSPITALITY BOMIAJOE JOURNEY TO BANJOEMAS UNHEALTHY POSITION OF THE LATTER PLACE EDIBLE BIRDS* 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 unpleasing ; in figure, they are short and thick set, and their movements are awkward and ungraceful. The women 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. The females of that district have a sin- gular way of confining their hair, which they fasten up by means of a wooden stick, of the size and shape shown in the accompanying sketch. 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. Tents are not used in Java as with 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 public 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 withered countenance of our one eyed abigail. The master of the hotel, it would appear, [UJ] M {Wj [UJ] JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 75 not quite understanding the nature of her position in our establishment, and deceived perhaps by the mas- sive silver ornaments with 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 was 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 from 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 with her husband to make herself agreeable. She would be a pretty woman, were it not for the disfiguring effects of the betel nut, for which the Javanese cherish the greatest 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 his son, and his remains 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 calico 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 mountains 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. 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 solicitude 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 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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 effects 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 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 established 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 quality 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. SI CHAPTER X. KUBOOMAN A NATIVE REVIEW SERVILE DEFERENCE OP THE JAVANESE TO SUPERIOR RANK A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF M. DI SORNA1 THE GOVERNESS IN DISTRESS ARRIVAL AT POORWAREDJOE LADIES MORNING COSTUME THE JAIL GOVERNMENT SCHOOL ARRIVAL AT MAGELANG. 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 by the officer in charge, Mr. Petel, who accompanied 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- G 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 hundrecftiuman 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 unbecoming 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 83 of the country, that it would be a difficult matter perhaps to effect its abolition ; but we learn from Raffles that during the brief administration of the English, the practice was in some measure 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 whole of dinner time, a circumstance which we had attri- buted to his ignorance of English, the language in which the conversation had hitherto been carried on. We had been speaking of our fellow passenger in the ' Java/ who had had his ear cut oif 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 I'd never seen before. Well, I fell quite in love with the widow, as was natural, and she promised to marry me in due course. In the mean- G 2 84 RAMBLES 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 ?' 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 JAVA AND THE 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 extremely lively and agreeable all the day, seemed particularly restless and unhappy we thought during the whole 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 compliment 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, 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 would 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- 86 TUMBLES 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 corn. 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 considerable 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 : : 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 singular 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 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 confusion. Owing to this and other causes, we were upwards of six hours on the road, and did not reach Magelang till after dark. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 89 We found the hotel tolerably clean and comfortable; but though long past the usual hour of supper, there was no indication of any such meal being forthcoming. The landlord was absent at Salatiga ; there were no other visitors in the hotel, 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 limited knowledge of the culinary art, and her labours on this occasion were quite in vain, for nothing whatever was eatable save the potatoes, upon which we supped and went to bed. 90 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER XI. THE RESIDENT AT MAGELANG, UNCOURTEOUS 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 DETENTION IN THE SALATIGA JURISDICTION- COURTEOUS BEHAVIOUR OF 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 effected without the aid of the Resident, we deemed it politic, under the circum- stances, to obey the commands of that functionary, 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 would 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 on the previous evening, and having soon arranged what was neces- sary for our contemplated visit to the temples, we returned to our hotel with a feeling of extreme satis- faction, 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 least 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 vanities, 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 land, yet few are there, we believe, among those who can claim ^^^^^^^^^^^^ % * A high mountain near Magelang. 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 village 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 different 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 w 7 hile 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 com- JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 93 munity 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 Magelano;; and about two O O ' miles 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 1)4 RAMBLES IN 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 QnJ] eo fc [U] '/ iB* * , '?-' " .r ':' : . - Vi /) * sr i ' W.Spreat : Lith JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 95 of these interestingrruins. 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 do 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 hospitality, 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 feeling 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 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 returned, 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 e 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 unsupportable heat of that place. The hotel at Salatiga is a mercantile building, JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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. ii 98 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER XII. DETERMINE TO LEAVE JAVA CAUSE OF THIS RESOLUTION NO BETTER PHYSICIAN THAN A GOOD COOK LEAVE SALATIGA FOR SAMARANG HEAT OF THE LATTER PLACE THE JAVA HOTEL DRIVE THROUGH THE TOWN AND ENVIRONS A DUTCHMAN^ OPINION OF JAVA VAST RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY YET TO BE DEVELOPED DIFFI- CULTY OF OBTAINING MEANS OF TRANSPORT FOR THE PRODUCE HOW REMOVABLE PROBABLE RESULTS HAD THE ISLAND REMAINED A BRITISH POSSESSION, AND PROBABLE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE OF 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 kooftah of Bengal, with this difference, that the former is made with salt rancid butter, which is not the case with the Indian dish. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 99 but with one exception, unvaried kindness and atten- tion at the hands of the European Residents, from the Governor General down to the humble 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 derogatory to the dig- nity of man, or to that intelligence with which he has been gifted above all other breathing creatures, that he should study to avail himself of every means that is open to him to preserve his physical energies in health and vigour. A valued female relative of our own, 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 rnind of our respected relative, that there was no better physician than a really good cook. The old lady took the hint ; she discharged her inefficient ser- vant, and by paying a few pounds more to another H 2 100 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 abolished ; 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 Govern- 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 101 in Java ; but despite of the pleasurable excitement which rapid travelling, picturesque scenery, and fine weather combine to produce on the mind, we shall 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 young 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 black, 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 every Dutchman puts to you on your first introduction to him. He will then, without giving you time to reply, proceed to answer 102 RAMBLES IN 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 103 not available to the agriculturist for the transport of his produce. It is difficult 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 rude 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, travelling 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 Government, the rates for posting are so extravagantly high, being on an average two Java rupees per mile, as to put it out 104 RAMBLES IN 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 Government 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- fit ted by the change of system. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 105 CHAPTER XIII. RETURN TO BATAVIA THE STEAMER ' KONINGEN ' A SUBALTERN^ BREAKFAST JEALOUSY OP 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. 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 believe, 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. She 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 106 RAMBLES IN 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 bilious 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 different character. He first cut for himself a thick slice 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 teaspoonful 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 willingly JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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 Government, 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 wish of the kind. We have not_ yet resided two 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, we 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 Government might be certified that we had not carried away from 108 RAMBLES IN 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 ; but in the instance under notice, there is reason to believe that it was not a sense of public duty only that prompted the Resident to refuse the passport, but that private feeling 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- * By an order of Council no one is allowed to carry out of the island more than five hundred dollars. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 109 fore, of a right in the soil independent of that of the sovereign, has never been entertained by a native of Java ; nor could 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 public work, needs repair, the required number of labourers are collected together 110 RAMBLES IN 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 1 1 not those of the latter. The Sawah lands, besides their 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 corn, 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 112 RAMBLES IN 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. H3 CHAPTER XIV. THE "BARA KEAMA," OR LANGUAGE OF HONOUR CHARACTER OF THE JAVANESE SUITABLENESS OP JAVA AS A PLACE OF RESIDENCE FOR THE INDIAN INVALID THE HOTEL DER NEDERLANDEN 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. 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- i 114 RAMBLES 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 climate, 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 115 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 Coolies 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 travelling 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 2 116 RAMBLES IN most conducive to health, 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- JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 1 7 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 English 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 English 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 1 ] 8 EAMBLES 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 little friend, 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 JAVA AND 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. 1 20 RAMBLES IN CHAPTER XV. THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT SINGAPORE SMALLNESS OP THE CONGRE- GATION TO WHAT CAUSE ATTRIBUTABLE FRUITS OF THE STRAITS THE MANGUSTIN THE DURTAN 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. 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 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 122 RAMBLES IN 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 w T ere assailed 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 assures 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 our natural repugnance for offensive 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 alive, 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 124 BAMBLES IN 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 Jie 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- Tr [BED? tan QTT W Spreatlifh. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 25 mometer rise to 87 at noon, after standing so low as 75 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 affected 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 126 RAMBLES IN Government Hill. 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 born 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 like 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 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 eifect of checking him, and he was immediately secured by other passers by. The poor Syce was a 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. 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. JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 29 CHAPTER XVI. MOSQUITOES ME. FOETUNE*S MOSQUITOE TOBACCO THE PENANG HILL THE LIONS OF PENANG THE GEEAT TEEE WATEEFALL CLIMATE AND TEMPEEATUEE OF PENANG HILL IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEM- BEE A CASE OF AMOK PEODUCTS 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 K 130 RAMBLES IN to the ceiling of the room from which the mosquitoes are to be expelled, and being ignited at the lower end, it will burn, 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. V ; - m Ife QnJ] JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 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 011 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 2 132 RAMBLES IN Shortly after our arrival on the hill, we happened to stroll up to the flag staff, when, seeing the Serjeant 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 offer 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 peculiarity 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 o o 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 JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 1 33 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 corner 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 further down the hill. The temperature was very delightful during the whole period of our stay, the thermometer ranging from 69 to 76 of Fahrenheit. 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 every 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 English 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 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 punitive 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 Bay an Lepas on the 14th instant. A Malay 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. - 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 mountain. 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 believed 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. 138 IIAMBLES IN The ' Shanghai' is a screw, and is, we believe, the only vessel of this description of the Oriental Com- pany's plying upon these seas. The screw has this positive advantage over its elder brother the paddle, that dispensing as s^ie does with the huge unsightly paddle box, she is enabled to sail almost as quickly as she can steam. But this advantage is counter- balanced, we think, in a great measure, by the incon- venience that is felt from the disagreeable motion which is communicated to the whole of the after part of the vessel, by the peculiar motion of the screw. For our own part we would rather go half round the world in a steamer with paddles, than travel a thousand miles in one constructed on the screw prin- ciple. The motion in both descriptions of vessels is unpleasant enough, but in the paddle it is more equally distributed, whilst in the screw the motion is chiefly felt in that portion of the ship which is ordinarily set apart for the accommodation of pas- sengers. CALCUTTA, OCTOBER 4, ] 852. Reader, our summer holiday is over, and we are once again on Indian ground, where other and more arduous duties must henceforth claim our time and thoughts. We bid thee, therefore, farewell ; but ere JAVA AND THE STRAITS. 139 we part, we would repeat what we have already urged in our Preface, that we have no other motive in publishing these notes than what arises from the hope not, perhaps, an unreasonable one that our experience, 'brief as it has been,, might be rendered useful to such of our fellow exiles in the East, as might be led by failing health, or by some other cause, to visit the interesting ground over which we have lately passed; and if this end should be an- swered but in one solitary instance only, De Zieke Reiziger will deem himself repaid for his labours, and consider that the time he has bestowed on the " Rambles in Java and the Straits" has not been quite misspent. Printed by E. and G. II. Croydon, Royal Library, TeSgnmouth. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY