Behind the city are visible three hills of inconsiderable height, called

Pearl Hill, Government Hill, and Sophia Hill. The middle one, on which

stands Government House, rises on the left bank of the river, about half a

mile from the sea-shore, to a height of about 156 feet above sea-level. On

Pearl Hill, which commands the Chinese and mercantile quarters of the

town, a citadel has been constructed. The environs of the town on every

side consist of a rolling sweep of hilly country, diversified in outline

by about 70 different eminences varying in height from 60 to 170 feet,

crowned with the elegant villas of the European merchants or government

officials, or the residences of wealthy Chinese or Malays. The loftiest

point is Bukit Turiah or Tin Hill, lying about the centre of the island,

and 519 feet in height. Although accessible in a few hours from the city,

it is very rarely made the scene of any excursions, in consequence of the

forests which encircle it having for long been frequented by great numbers

of tigers. These animals, eager for prey, cross from the mainland by

swimming the narrow strait, hardly more than half a nautical mile in

width, which separates it from the island. Dr. Logan, the excellent editor

of the Singapore Free Press, assured us that till within the last six or

seven years, 360 natives had annually been carried off by the tigers! Even

at present, over 100 persons a year are killed in the forest by the tigers

that prowl there. Shortly before our arrival, in the month of March, four

persons had perished by these voracious animals. For an explanation of

such horrible occurrences, we must consider the heedlessness of the

natives, and the peculiar conditions affecting the mode of agriculture

followed on the island. The soil of Singapore is not sufficiently fertile

to make the cultivation of land a customary occupation. Even for

rice-growing it is found to be unsuitable, so that the greater part of

that chief staple of subsistence has to be imported from the neighbouring

islands. So far as the island has been cleared, viz. to a distance of

about five miles round the city, attempts have been made to plant nutmeg,

clove, and fruit-trees. But the majority of the natives busy themselves

with sowing the Gambir and Betel shrubs in the jungle, the leaves of which

are readily disposed of at a good profit among the betel-chewing

inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago for an ingredient of their beloved

masticatory. The mode of cultivating these, however, is very peculiar. As

Gambir speedily exhausts the soil in which it is planted, and renders it

quite barren, the cultivators find themselves compelled to advance as

though by a sort of perpetual emigration. They hew their way into the

jungle, where they plant the Gambir (_Nauclea Gambir_),[29] the withered

branches and leaves of which, after it has served their purpose, are used

as manure for the _next_ shrub planted, the Betel (_Piper methysticum_).

After a short time the soil becomes unsuited for this also, and needs

several years' rest before it can again be made to produce any crop.

In the prosecution of this thriftless cultivation the natives are

compelled to penetrate deeper and deeper into the forest, in order to

clear away with the axe spots of virgin soil for the planting of the

Gambir. They frequently pass months at a time in the jungle, and with the

carelessness characteristic of all southern races, constantly allow

themselves to be surprised by wild beasts. Government, however, does not

neglect publishing ordinances, by which as far as possible to discourage

these formidable invaders. They have offered a reward of 50 dollars for

every tiger killed. So soon as the track of a tiger has been struck, the

natives usually dig a pit fifteen or twenty feet deep, which they cover

slightly with grass and brushwood, and fasten close by a goat, a dog, or

some other living creature. As soon as the tiger, eager for his prey,

seeks to seize the poor animal, the brushwood gives way under him and he

falls into the pit, where he is speedily finished with muskets.

The entire population of the island amounts to about 100,000 souls, of

which the greater number, say 60,000, inhabit the town itself or the

surrounding villages. One meets here with a singular mixture of races,

Europeans, Malays, Chinese, Klings (as the natives of the Coromandel coast

are called), Arabs, Armenians, Parsees (Fire-worshippers), Bengalees,

Burmese, Siamese, Bugis (from Celebes), Javanese, and from time to time

visitors from every corner of the Archipelago. Of these the Europeans,

although exercising far the largest and most preponderating influence upon

the trade of the place, are much the weakest in point of numbers, the

entire community not exceeding 300 or 400 on the whole island. On the

other hand, the Chinese out-number all the rest, and are still constantly

on the increase. Every year, as the N.E. monsoon sets in, in December and

January, vast swarms of Chinese flock hither, fleeing from the poverty and

distress of their native land. There are individuals, who make a regular

trade of importing into Singapore coolies from China and the Coromandel

coast. At the port of embarkation, each coolie engages with the captain,

to serve one year after his arrival in Singapore with a European or native

master, and to repay the cost of his passage out of his monthly wages. He

usually receives at first 3 dollars a month (about 12_s._ 6_d._), out of

which he lays aside 1-1/2 dol., and so gradually pays off his indebtedness

to the ship captain. The passage-money, which a few years back was only

about 10 or 12 Rs. (L1 to L1 4_s._), is at present as high as 20 Rs., or

L2. After the first year his earnings may amount to about 4 or 5 dols. a

month. If, however, the coolie have repaid his debt, he is free, and may

either earn a very good wage as a servant, or start in any business for

himself. The facilities for earning money are so great here for men of

industry and steadiness, that a few years' stay suffices to convert these

naked, filthy, hang-dog looking wretches into clean well-to-do workmen,

and some of them even attain a certain status in the community, as

planters and merchants. Many a Chinese, who is now an important and

wealthy man, possessed not a farthing when he landed on the hospitable

shore of the English colony. The number of Chinese resident in Singapore

is estimated at 60,000, or nearly two-thirds of the entire population of

the island.

We need not feel surprised therefore to find that the long-tailed children

of the Flowery Land living in Singapore have begun to develope a certain

taste for luxury. They already boast a theatre of their own, a wooden

booth, like a gigantic dolls' house, in which actors from China yell out

their "sing-song," while the auditory, penned in within a

carefully-locked court-yard, chant a vociferous accompaniment to this

somewhat monotonous exhibition. Moreover, Singapore possesses a Chinese

temple of such splendour, that one would hardly find its match in the

Flowery Land itself. This is called the Telloh-Ayer, situated in the

street of the same name, and is decorated with handsome carvings,

innumerable mysterious inscriptions, and grotesque figures of stone and

wood. The Chinese who conducted us all round were exceedingly friendly,

and when, at parting, we slid a few pieces of silver into their hands as a

recompense for their trouble, they gave vent to their feelings in repeated

chin-chins, a mode of greeting which corresponds to the Salaam of the

Mahometan races.

Many of the Chinese of Singapore belong to secret societies (Hoes), the

members of which seem banded together for both good and bad objects and

for mutual protection. Their rules are so strict, and their slightest

infraction is so fearfully punished, that hardly an instance has ever been

known of an associate having been denounced or proved a traitor. In the

British possessions, where the government attaches no sort of importance

to these associations, and suffers them to pass unmolested so long as the

laws of the country are not violated, these societies are unimportant, and

are productive of no evil consequences; but in the Dutch East Indies,

where the government has always kept their subjects in a state of

tutelage, and is in a marked degree adverse to the Chinese settled in

their colonies, these secret societies assume a far more dangerous

character, and murders on purely political grounds are far from

infrequent.

The natives proper of Singapore are Malays, and their language is that

most in use for general intercourse and trade. But as open-air labourers

they are far inferior to the Chinese, who are much more enduring, more

contented, and more sociable. In this connection the following comparative

statement, prepared a few years since by W. J. Thompson, Esq., government

engineer in Singapore, of the relative values of English and Chinese

labour, will be found of much interest. To build a wall in England

containing 306 cubic feet would, according to Mr. Thompson's estimate,

employ one bricklayer and one ordinary labourer 4-44/100 days, the former

receiving 5_s._ 6_d._ per day, the latter 3_s._ 6_d._, the total expense

amounting to 30_s._ In Singapore a similar piece of work, executed by

Chinese labourers, would require 8-54/100 days, and the daily wage would

amount to 2_s._ 9-3/5_d._ for the bricklayer and 1_s._ 7-3/5_d._ for his

assistant, the total expense amounting to 37_s._ 6_d._ Thus, English

labour shows an economy over Chinese in the proportion of 52 to 100 in

time, and of 4 to 5 in actual expense. The following is also interesting

by way of confirmation. It had been resolved to fill up a swamp in

Singapore, the material for which was at hand at either extremity. The

swamp was 1200 feet long, 1 foot deep, and 21 feet wide. The contract was

allotted to the Chinese, and completed in 326 working days, at 13 cents or

11-1/2_d._ a day. An English, or indeed any other European labourer,

would have completed the same in 187 days, so that here also English or

European labour in general is more valuable than Chinese or any other

Asiatic labour in the proportion of 100 to 57.

These results must not however be held to indicate that the Chinese

labourer possesses less physical strength than the European, nor must we

leave out of view this element in the calculation, that the one executes

his work in a temperate, the other in an excessively hot climate, to which

European labourers speedily succumb, or at all events lose their powers

and their strength in a very marked degree. Indeed it seems to decide the

question in favour of the Chinese over the European labourer, that the

former can work without taking any heed for his health in even the most

variable temperatures. These instructive comparisons seem to be in so far

especially valuable and useful, wherever it is projected to carry out

certain undertakings, the cost of which may be estimated, due reference

being had to the well-ascertained expense of constructing similar works in

Europe.

Next to the Chinese, the Klings, or natives of the Coromandel coast, are

in the greatest request as boatmen, coachmen, pedlars, porters, and

house-servants, by Europeans as well as by their own successful

fellow-countrymen. From their habits of extreme sobriety, they speedily

save money, and generally return home, although a certain number continue

permanent settlers in Singapore. The Armenians resident here are the most

like the European mercantile community; the Arabs are the descendants of

those Mahometan priests and merchants whom the Portuguese found here when

they first visited this quarter of the globe, and are recruited from time

to time, but on the whole rarely, by fresh arrivals from their mother

country.

One very marked peculiarity of the population of Singapore is the enormous

disparity between the numbers of the sexes. The proportion of females to

males is as one to seven. The most probable explanation of this phenomenon

is the circumstance that hitherto the emigration of females from China has

been entirely prohibited, and consequently almost all the Chinese

residents, who constitute by far the majority of the whole population, are

unmarried. Among them the proportion of females to males is as one to

thirteen.

The health of Singapore is not always so bad as at the period of our

visit; indeed, judging by perquisitions made for the purpose, the climate

may rather be regarded as salubrious, particularly since the immediate

vicinity of the town has been so extensively cleared. The outbreak of

cholera was entirely new, and on that account an all the more appalling

visitation. The temperature is tolerably equal throughout the year.

Observations carried on uninterruptedly during five years give an average

of 81 deg. 3. Fahr. for the hottest month (May), and of 79 deg. 5. Fahr. for the

coldest (January). Once only during the five years (in June) did the

thermometer attain a height of 87 deg. 2. Fahr. and once only in January did

it fall as low as 74 deg. 8. Fahr. By comparing the present range of

temperature with that of thirty years since, it appears that since the

foundation of the settlement it has gained three degrees in temperature, a

phenomenon which may be ascribed to the increase of buildings, and to the

large clearings for a distance of five miles round the town, and perhaps

also to the spot itself where these observations were made being exposed.

There is no regular rainy season in Singapore. Rain falls every month

throughout the year, the heaviest falls occurring in August and December.

According to observations carried on during four years, the annual

rainfall averaged 93 inches. The tolerably regular distribution of the

rain throughout the year imparts to the vegetation a freshness that makes

the change of seasons pass almost unheeded.

In Singapore as elsewhere the members of the _Novara_ Expedition

experienced from all classes of society the most cordial and hospitable

reception. Every one bestirred himself to point out to us everything that

was worth knowing, or that the city could present of interest or deserving

special attention. After a cursory stroll through the most frequented

streets, with their dense crowds of people, which sufficiently proved to

us that trade was in fact the chief occupation of the inhabitants, we

turned our attention to the shops of some of the Mahometan merchants, when

our eyes were dazzled with all the most various products of India.

In one of these we were shown some exceedingly valuable diamonds from

Borneo, one of which weighed 17 carats, and was worth L4000 sterling,

while another of 19 carats, but less pure and brilliant, was for sale for

L2000. The seller, a Mahometan, himself wore on his finger a diamond-ring

which our companion estimated at L1000. In the stores of several other

merchants we saw the Malay servants sitting cross-legged on the bare floor

of the porch, with huge heaps of Spanish dollars before them, which they

were busy counting. The Spanish or Mexican dollar is here almost the only

medium of exchange, payments being made all but exclusively in that

currency, whereas gold, even English, is but sparingly used, and then with

ill-concealed reluctance! The utter want of any other recognized medium of

exchange than silver makes all extensive money transactions exceedingly

onerous, owing to the expense of transmitting the precious metals, in

consequence of which any one wishing to pay in a certain sum of a few

thousand dollars in cash, must employ a convoy for the purpose of

transporting the money![30]

Although, as already remarked, the chief business of the island is purely

commercial, and although, ordinarily speaking, every branch of industry

merges in that predominant occupation, there is yet one manufacture in

Singapore which calls for most special notice. This consists in the

preparation of pearl, or white sago, from the raw state, which is brought

from the N.E. coast of Sumatra, and the N.W. coast of Borneo. Almost the

whole of the sago of commerce is prepared here, and all but exclusively by

Chinese labour. Sago is chiefly obtained from the pith of several species

of palm, but more particularly from the _Sagus Rumphii_ and the _Sagus

Laevii_, both of which are rather limited in their area of cultivation,

and are not, like the cosmopolitan cocoa-nut palm, found in every quarter

of the tropical zone, both in the Old and New World, but are indigenous to

the Indian Archipelago alone. The trunk of the sago-palm, when felled, is

a cylinder of about 20 inches in diameter, and from 15 to 20 feet in

length, which, when the woody fibres have been separated, contains about

700 lbs of clear fine fecula. One may form some conception of its

extraordinary productiveness on learning that three sago-palms contain as

much nutritious matter as an acre of land grown with wheat! One piece of

ground of the extent of an English acre planted with sago-palms

occasionally yields 313,000 lbs of sago, or as much food as 163 acres of

wheat. The sago however is neither as palatable nor as nutritious as it is

productive, and nowhere, where rice is in common use, will it be displaced

by this article of food. We visited the largest sago manufacture in

Singapore, in which the sago, as it comes in the raw state from Borneo and

Sumatra, is washed and roasted, when it becomes the pearl sago of

commerce. The quantity thus prepared annually amounts to about 100,000

cwt.

Singapore was also the first place where we found an opportunity of

becoming acquainted with opium-smokers, and of observing the noxious

effects of this custom, which was forced upon the Chinese for the purpose

of compelling commercial relations. Although in almost every street in

Singapore there are houses in which opium is sold and can be smoked (the

so-called "Licensed opium shops"), there is, in order to keep more control

over it, only one single place where the opium is prepared for smoking

from the raw material, called by the English the "Opium farm," from which

all retail dealers must purchase their supplies of stock.

Before describing our visit to this curious factory we shall indulge in a

few observations upon a plant whose intoxicating, poisonous milky sap

produces such singular effects upon the human system. The poppy (_papaver

somniferum_), is chiefly grown in Hindostan in the districts of Benares,

Patna, and Malwa. Its cultivation is exceedingly arduous, and very

precarious, since the tender young plants require constant care and

attention in the way of repeated watering, as well as weeding and turning

up the soil, besides which there is the ever-present danger of its

destruction by insects, or its loss through storm, or hail, or untimely

rains. The plant blooms in the month of February, and three months later

the seed is ripe. The incision into the capsule however is made three or

four weeks earlier, so soon, in short, as it is covered with a fine white

mealy dust. The instrument employed in this operation has three prongs

with very sharp points, with which the plant is carefully scratched. Each

plant is thus tapped for three consecutive days, the operation beginning

with the first warm beams of the morning sun; the milky sap is scraped off

in the cool of the next morning, and on the fourth morning each plant is

again tried as to whether it still exudes sap, but usually it proves to

have been exhausted. The juice as scraped off in its coagulated form, is

put into a cask along with linseed oil, in order not to get too quickly

dry, and then is made by hand-kneading into round flat cakes, of about

four pounds' weight, and about five inches in diameter, which, enveloped

in poppy and tobacco leaves, are spread out to dry in earthen dishes, till

ready for purposes of commerce. In this stage the opium is packed in boxes

of ten cakes or about 40 lbs, and thus passes from the hands of the grower

or the speculator at certain fixed prices into those of the agents of the

East India Company. The very anxious and precarious cultivation of the

poppy must prove far less remunerative to the proprietor of the land than

the much easier task of raising tobacco or sugar-cane, and it is only the

long-established but most impoverishing system of payments in advance,

pursued by the agents of the East India Company, that keeps the Hindoos

engaged in opium cultivation.[31]

At the opium farm in Singapore we saw this same coagulated juice, as

obtained from the poppy, converted into opium suitable for smoking, which

is called _chandu_, the process consisting in its being exposed to the

action of heat in large semicircular brass pans, strained through filters,

and once more exposed to a low heat, until it finally coagulates into a

consistency strongly resembling treacle or syrup. The whole manipulation

occupies from four to five days. A cattie or ball of this thickened

poppy-juice costs the manufacturer about 20 dols. From ten such balls of

the raw sap, or about 40 lbs, which is the usual weight of each "chest,"

as imported from Hindostan, 216 "tiles" or about 18 lbs of opium are

obtained upon an average. We saw the Chinese dealer place in one of the

scales a Spanish dollar, instead of a regular weight, and measure off a

corresponding weight of opium in the other, A _Chi_, weighing about 1/16

oz., the ordinary quantity consumed by an opium-smoker, costs 17-1/2

cents, or nine-pence. The duty levied upon this manufacture gives the

government a revenue of L3000 a month, for the exclusive right of

preparing opium fit for smoking, _chandu_, for consumption on the island.

As often as the apparatus is called into activity, the Chinese employed in

the preparation of the opium, in pursuance of what seems with them a

regular custom at the commencement of any spell of work, commit to the

flames, after repeating a certain set of formulas of prayer, a number of

octavo-sized leaves (_Tschni-tschni-soa_) of paper printed upon one side

only, and occasionally provided in very large quantities: on these fabrics

of the roughest material are printed sometimes prayers in Chinese,

sometimes all kinds of drawings, intended to express the wishes of those

making the offering, and which ordinarily represent in very sketchy

outline those objects which they pray their deities to bestow on them. In

thus burning, in a copper vessel specially prepared for the purpose, not

unlike the baptismal font in a Christian church, these small slips of

paper, the Chinese operative believes that his petition ascends to heaven

as smoke, and so comes under the cognizance of his protecting gods.

Similarly in all temples and pagodas, large quantities may be found stored

away of these paper intercessors with the Chinese gods, intended for the

use of believers, or rather of those who make profession of faith.

The workmen of the opium farm have a part of their wages paid in opium.

The greater number are themselves opium-smokers, and thus are all the more

surely attached to the manufacture. We saw a number of these fellows lying

stretched out on straw mats, in wretched filthy-looking dens of rooms,

with blue curtains barely concealing them from view, and the spirit-lamp

placed conveniently near to enable them from time to time to heat the

_chandu_, the smoke of which they inhale through a peculiarly constructed

pipe (_Yeu-tsiang_). The quantity of opium taken up at each dip by the

instrument used, a three-cornered, flat-headed sort of needle specially

adapted for the purpose, is about the size of a pea. The practised

opium-smoker holds his breath for a considerable time, and passes the

smoke through the nostrils. The taste of the half-fluid juice of the

poppy is sweetish and oily, but the odour of the _chandu_ when heated,

which one of the workmen addicted to smoking insisted on our regarding as

one of the most valuable of perfumes, is so disagreeable as almost to

cause nausea. We saw numbers of smokers, athwart the filthy gossamer-like

curtains, utterly stupefied, and lying carelessly stretched out on the

hard bedsteads, the pipe fallen out of their hands, and the lamp on the

table in front of their couch extinguished. They, however, did not want

the curtain for the purpose of preventing their being disturbed in the

luxurious enjoyment of their beatific dreams; for they continued in a

state resembling death itself, from which hardly anything could possibly

rouse them so long as the effects of the poisonous drug lasted. Others of

the smokers were so affected by it as to have utterly lost their senses,

and seemed on the whole entirely indifferent to all that was passing

around them. One of the workmen, who was in a high state of excitement,

and was uncommonly talkative, informed us however that he had to smoke

about one shilling's worth of opium ere he could feel its effect, that

there was nothing more annoying or insupportable than mere partial

stupefaction, when one had no more money wherewith to buy opium so as to

be able to get into a proper state of somnolence. The entire system at

such times gets into a frightful state of irritation; there is severe

headache, a sensation of pressure on the stomach, nausea, in a word all

the ill-effects of the use of opium, without any of its more agreeable

sensations. The state of intoxication and drowsiness usually lasts from

forty to sixty minutes, when consciousness gradually returns, without any

ill-effects being experienced at the moment from the inhalation of the

poison.

In Singapore, where comparatively high wages are paid, and the Chinese

population is the most numerous, the annual consumption of opium amounts

to about 330 grains per head. In the Island of Java, where, in consequence

of certain limits prescribed by government, the Chinese element amounts to

but 1/100th of the entire population, the consumption is hardly forty

grains per head. Even in China, where this perilous narcotic is consumed

in such enormous quantities, the amount sold only indicates 140 grains for

each smoker, which however is chiefly attributable to the poverty of the

populace, by whom this luxury is unattainable. Unfortunately we could get

no reliable information as to the number of opium-smokers, and the

quantity of opium consumed, in Singapore. Mr. Allen, a North American

missionary, estimates the number of persons who surrender themselves to

this practice throughout the Chinese Empire, at from 4-5,000,000, who

annually consume about 50,000 chests of opium. The quantity consumed by

each smoker daily varies in an extraordinary degree. At first the beginner

cannot inhale above two or three grains at a time, but gradually, as he

becomes habituated, the dose increases, till the confirmed smokers

consume as much as 100 grains daily!! Many Chinese spend two-thirds of

their earnings in the purchase of this drug, which has become for them a

necessity of life.

The practice of eating opium in the form of pills, which prevails in every

Mahometan country in the East, and has in a special degree been readily

adopted by the disciples of the Koran, in consequence of the prohibition

of wine, would seem, judging by the researches of physicians, to be much

less injurious and much slower in affecting the human system than smoking

the opium, or otherwise bringing it directly in contact with the lungs,

while the effects of the former practice is likewise different.

We shall have an opportunity, when describing our stay in Chinese waters,

to revert to this most remarkable and most profitable, but at the same

time most iniquitous, monopoly of the (late) East India Company, which

crushes millions of human beings in the most appalling and hopeless of all

slaveries, and against the continuance of which the Chinese government has

repeatedly but ineffectually set its face. The words of the

idol-worshipping Emperor of China, when in 1840 he was solicited to

convert the importation of opium into a source of revenue to the state,

were worthy of a Christian monarch: "It is true," said the Chinese ruler,

"I cannot hinder the importation of this subtle poison; infamous men in

the lust for gain will out of covetousness or sensuality set at nought the

fulfilment of my wishes;--but they shall never induce me to enrich myself

by the vices and the wretchedness of my people!"

Despite the very small proportion of Europeans resident in Singapore, and

that almost the entire time of those few seems to be absorbed in business,

there is nevertheless considerable intellectual activity. Several

newspapers in the English language, among which the "Singapore Free

Press," edited by Mr. A. Logan, occupies the foremost rank, supply

information as to all that is worth knowing in every part of the East

Indies, while the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," which has been for

many years so ably and carefully conducted by the well-known and

widely-famous J. H. Logan (brother of the editor of the "Press"), is a

veritable mine of information for the naturalist, who wishes to make the

history of the Indian Archipelago and its inhabitants the object of his

study. It contains exceedingly useful data for extending our knowledge of

these very remarkable countries, susceptible as they are of such

extraordinary development.

The colony also boasts a Museum of Natural History adjoining a library

with several thousand volumes, and a reading-room, copiously supplied with

newspapers and periodicals, the whole forming what is called the

"Singapore Institution." This enterprise was founded by shares of 40

dollars each, and is supported by an annual subscription of 24 dollars by

each member, which confers the privilege of using the well-selected

library of books, and a great number of English and French papers and

periodicals. The small ethnographic collection consists chiefly of

specimens from Borneo, Sumatra, and the adjoining islands.

Among the educational institutions most deserving of attention and

recognition must be specially noticed the school for the instruction of

Malay boys and girls, under the management and preceptorship of that most

deserving missionary, Mr. B. P. Keasberry, who has pursued a career of

useful activity in this Archipelago during thirty years past. The parents

of the children taken in here have to contribute to their support, and to

leave them there for at least ten years, under the affectionate spiritual

care of the missionary, and must not remove them till after the expiry of

that period. This condition was rendered necessary by the fickleness of

the Malay nature, which otherwise would frequently withdraw the children

from the supervision of the missionary at the very moment when they were

beginning to become amenable to the influences of instruction in

Christianity and civilization. The Institution is supported partly by

voluntary contributions, partly by the profits of a printing business, in

which, however, hardly anything is printed except educational and

religious works in the Malay language. Mr. Keasberry was so kind as to

present us with a small collection of the works thus published during the

past year, comprising among others a dictionary of the English and Malay

languages, the New Testament, a volume of Natural History, a Manual of

Geography, a Universal History, a Biblical History, and numerous

educational works in Malay for the use of the pupils.

In the course of a visit we paid to the Police Court we had the pleasure

of becoming acquainted with Mr. Windsor Carl, the well-known author of

numerous valuable works relating to the Indian Archipelago and the Papuan

Negroes, a gentleman whose career in life has been of the strangest, at

present holding the position of magistrate in Singapore, where his great

experience and his thorough acquaintance with the Malay language must be

of the utmost service to government. The audience assembled in the Court

room, in which only causes under 50 Rs. are tried, consisted for the most

part of Chinese. Almost all the officials, clerks, inspectors, and

policemen were coloured. In one month 414 causes came on for trial, of

which 315 were disposed of by the imposition on the culprits of fines

amounting in the aggregate to 5975 Rs., but of this sum only 5105 Rs. were

realized. The largest number of sentences are passed in March, because the

Chinese celebrate the New Year on the first day of that month, and

accordingly the largest number of cases of assault, &c., occur at that

period. The police _employes_ registered in that period above 100 cases of

transgressions of the law. The New Year is however, as must be remembered,

the solitary festival which John Chinaman takes out of his appointed work,

since recognizing as they do neither Sunday nor feast-day they continue

hard at work for all the rest of the year. The majority of decisions refer

to prohibited games; and whoever knows the inextinguishable love of the

Chinese populace for spending their time in gambling, will readily

comprehend how in a single year there occurred above 2000 cases in which

the law was violated. While we were in the justice-room, a paper was

handed in to the presiding magistrate, in which an English sailor, at that

moment in hospital, urgently requested that he might leave the same,

inasmuch as he felt no longer sure of his life, owing to the numbers daily

brought thither to die of cholera. In fact the hospital, and the

localities adjacent, seemed to be the spots most seriously visited by the

pestilence, so that the prayer of the petitioner to be removed from that

neighbourhood was not altogether unfounded.

One highly interesting establishment, deserving of universal imitation, is

the penal colony for criminals sentenced to transportation for life from

all parts of India, and known as "The Convict Settlement." In order to

comprehend the object and tendency of this institution, it seems necessary

to premise certain remarks upon the political relation of Singapore to

India at large. Singapore in conjunction with the colony of Malacca, which

gives its name to the entire peninsula, and the island of Penang,

including the district of Wellesley, form that range of British

settlements in the Straits of Malacca which is usually known to the

English as "The Straits Settlements." Up to quite a recent date, these

colonies, founded almost exclusively in the interests of British commerce,

were under the authority of the Indian government, and were in fact

controlled from Calcutta. To the Directors of the East India Company,

however, these settlements, of whose future destiny the mother country has

hitherto taken but little heed, notwithstanding their enormous political

and commercial importance, appeared to be specially adapted as a place for

maintaining common criminals, as also the more dangerous class of

political offenders, and accordingly converted these settlements into

penal colonies for the Indies, of which that of Singapore is the most

important.

The director of this institution, Captain McNair, had the kindness to

accompany the members of the Novara expedition through the extensive

buildings, for the most part only one storey high, but well adapted for

this purpose, and to furnish us with much information on the various

particulars and special matters of interest relating to the establishment.

Ever since the year 1854, the wretched, confined, wooden huts thatched

with straw, in which up to that period the unfortunate criminals were

confined, have been removed, and in their stead lofty, airy, good-sized

apartments have been substituted. At the period of our visit in April

1858, there were over 2000 transported for life, and 245 sentenced to

various terms of from five to ten years, confined here. All the public

buildings of the island, churches, hospitals, barracks, works in the

streets, sometimes constructions of a most expensive nature, were executed

throughout by criminals. After sixteen years' good conduct, the prisoner

was entitled to a "ticket of leave," authorising him to settle within the

jurisdiction of the island as a free colonist, coupled with the condition

of presenting himself once a month before the superintendent of the

settlement. In case of bad conduct, or failure, or irregularity in

fulfilling such stipulations, these concessions are revoked. All the

overseers of the convict settlement, who receive monthly pay at the rate

of from one to two dollars, are prisoners who have already given proof of

their desire to return to a better mode of life, and it is well worth

remark, that the 2000 convicts, consisting for the most part of the very

dregs of the various Indian races, and condemned for grave crimes to

perpetual imprisonment, are under the charge of a single white turnkey,

and by him maintained in perfect order and propriety of demeanour. Besides

this one official there is only a small detachment of Indian soldiers,

from twelve to fifteen in number, stationed at the settlement as a measure

of precaution. The best evidence of the excellent system on which this

institution is administered, will be found in the published reports of its

health, from which it appears that of the 2000 there confined, there were

but forty sick at the very period when the cholera was committing such

terrific ravages in the town among the poorer classes, and the change of

the monsoon had been accompanied by great sickness and general

unhealthiness. The convicts go to work at six every morning, and return to

the barracks about 4 P.M., the rest of the day being spent in preparing

their victuals, consisting of rice, vegetables, cayenne-pepper, and fruit.

As most of those confined are Hindoos and profess Brahminism, they bathe

several times a day, in a large tank filled with excellent water. This

wise religious custom must in such a sultry climate conduce in a marked

degree to the preservation of their health, by its beneficial and

refreshing action upon the frame.

Some of the convicts are also employed in manufacturing cordage, ropes,

twine, &c., of the fibres of the wild plantain (_Musa textilis_), the

Rame-shrub (_Boehmeria nivea_), and the wild pine-apple (_Bromelia Ananas_

or _Ananassa Sativa_). All these textures are of excellent quality, and

possess all the best properties of Russian hemp-fabrics, at a considerable

reduction of cost.

In the dormitories the convicts are not classified by nationalities as

during the labours of the day, but according to the nature of the offences

for which they are incarcerated, so that in one division all the thieves

are together, in another all the homicides, in a third all those convicted

of arson, &c. Although from a psychological point of view much might be

urged against the judiciousness of such a system, yet, as we were

informed, this method of confinement by classification of offences

exercises no prejudicial effect upon the moral amelioration of the

convicts, but on the contrary most encouraging results have been observed

to arise from its operation. Among others we were told of a Hindoo from

the Malabar coast, a convict for life, who after sixteen years'

confinement received permission to settle on the island as a free

colonist. By industry, ability, and some fortunate speculations, this man

in the course of years acquired a large fortune. He now felt an intense

yearning to revisit his own home, and expressed his willingness to present

a large portion of his newly acquired wealth for such a permission. But

the law was explicit upon this point. Only a free pardon from the

Governor-general of India can as a rule avail to make such an exception,

which is of but rare occurrence. This he actually succeeded in obtaining

after repeated supplications, and this "fortunate unfortunate" was at last

permitted to return to his longed-for home. It is worth noting that of the

2245 prisoners, only fifty are of the female sex, chiefly Hindoo women

from Bengal. Among those imprisoned while we were there, we remarked three

white men, who had been sentenced to several months' confinement for

riotous conduct and drunkenness. Surrounded as they were by these bronzed

half-savage Hindoo offenders, these men made a doubly painful impression

upon Europeans.

As the prevalence of disease in the town and harbour made it especially

desirable that we should as speedily as possible change our quarters, in

order not to be surprised by a visit on board from a guest so formidable,

we made all possible efforts to complete with the utmost dispatch the

revictualling of the ship, and transact whatever other business was

necessary. For this purpose we were recommended in several quarters to

employ a Chinese merchant, whose name is already favourably mentioned by

Commodore Wilks on the occasion of his visiting Singapore in 1842. This

was Whampoa, a ship-chandler, who indeed in similar departments of trade

carries on by no means insignificant competition with the long-established

English firms. His business is unquestionably the most extensive in this

line in Singapore, and furnishes a striking example of what Chinese

industry, economy, and perseverance are capable of. Immense quantities of

provisions and ship-stores are accumulated in his extensive warehouses, so

that he can supply orders to any extent in an incredibly short space of

time. Within two days, Whampoa had completely victualled the ship for six

months, besides supplying her from the adjoining stream with 100 tons of

good water, which was brought alongside in boats specially constructed for

the purpose, and thence pumped through hose into the iron water-tanks in

the hold, an operation which in any European port would have taken thrice

the time required here. Moreover all the articles supplied by Whampoa were

of the best quality, and proportionally moderate in price. He employs none

but Chinese, with long tails, and black silk apparel. All the books are

kept in the Chinese language, and even the additions and subtractions are

not made in the European method, but by the Chinese _counting_ board, that

is, by shifting a number of wooden beads or rings, which run in different

rows, and have a variety of values. This reckoning-board consists of an

oblong frame, divided in its length by a partition into unequal divisions,

in the larger of which are hung five, in the smaller two, beads upon metal

cross wires. Each wire with the seven beads running upon it constitutes a

single row, and in each such row, a single bead of the smaller division is

equal in value to the five corresponding beads in the larger compartment;

while, just as in the Russian reckoning-board, each row represents a

value tenfold greater or less with reference to the two arms adjoining it

on either side. On the Chinese board the number of cross wires is not

always the same, but depends upon the extent of the calculations intended

to be made upon it.[32]

[Illustration: A Chinese Counting Board.]

Accordingly when a Chinese wishes to make a calculation upon his

reckoning-board, he lays it crosswise before him, with the large

compartment next himself, pushes the beads of the two divisions to the

edge of the frame, whence, as the process of calculation may require, he

shifts them into the middle against the partition-wire, or pushes them

back again. In the former case the beads are said to "count on the

board," in the latter to be "off the board." Consequently, in order to

have 1, 2, 3, and 4 "counting," a corresponding number of beads in the

larger compartment must be pushed away from himself till they reach the

partition; to mark 5, he similarly draws towards himself a bead in the

smaller compartment, and as 6, 7, 8, and 9 are formed by the addition of 5

and 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, these will be marked by adding one bead

from the lesser compartment to the requisite number of beads in the

greater. The tens are indicated by the beads of the next wire to the left;

the hundreds by the next again to that, &c.

Within his own house, Whampoa lives entirely in the European fashion.

Plentifully blessed with this world's goods, he displays a degree of

luxury such as we are unaccustomed to see save in the most elevated

circles of society. One of his properties, which is several miles in

circumference, has a spacious, elegantly furnished mansion with a splendid

colonnade, a beautiful flower-garden, and a perfect menagery of useful

domestic animals. Within the house all the arrangements are European, with

the exception of the oval doors, communicating between the great saloon

and the antechambers, which are pushed into the wall on either side, and

have a very surprising effect. In the evening, especially when the saloon

is illuminated, if a person passes through this oval entrance, the effect

is as of a life-size portrait set in a golden frame. It would not be a bad

idea to introduce this Chinese form of door-way into our European

residences and country-seats, and it is assuredly not the only improvement

in the decorative art which we could borrow with advantage from the

Chinese. Whampoa's own favourite habitation is about four miles outside

the town, and presents a curious admixture of European comfort and taste

with Chinese notions of ornament. In the saloons, adorned with a quantity

of neat fancy ornaments, are suspended from the walls verses and proverbs

of the most renowned Chinese poets, all written on long elegantly

illustrated rolls of paper. Our host also showed us a variety of objects

which had been presented to him by foreign ship captains, officers of the

navy, and even singers, as the late Mrs. Catherine Hayes Bushnell, whom he

had shown much attention to. A banquet, to which we were invited by this

hospitable Chinese to meet a number of the most prominent commercial

magnates of the colony, was served entirely in the European style. The

viands were cooked by a Chinese cook, in the English and French styles,

only the dessert came part from Japan, part from China, and consisted of a

variety of fruits, which were utterly unknown to the eye and the palate of

the European guests. Our Chinese host seemed quite at home in doing the

honours. Although outwardly a Chinese of the most orthodox stamp, with

shaven head, (except the long tail reaching almost to the earth,) and his

body robed in a black silken stuff, he drank to each of his guests in good

old English style, and seemed as little afraid of Sherry as of Champagne.

Indeed, we even had toasts, in the course of which this Chinese friend to

foreigners remarked in English, that any amelioration of the present

critical condition of his native land, can only be effected by the

progressive influence of the British government. Whampoa is in all

probability the first Chinese who has sent his son to Europe.

On the very last day of our stay in Singapore, a melancholy accident

occurred on board. One of our sailors named Rossi, while unbending a sail

for the purpose of repair, fell from the fore-yard on the forecastle,

where he lay insensible, and died a few hours afterwards. Latterly

repeated instances had occurred at short intervals, of the sailors, while

working at various elevations, losing hold and falling on deck, but none

of these had had such a tragical result as the present, and a few slight

injuries was all the penalty the sufferers received for their

carelessness. Singularly enough, such accidents mostly occur to the able

seamen, because that class usually feel themselves as secure while resting

on the foot-ropes, and working among the masts and sails, as on the ground

itself, and from their carelessness come much more frequently to grief,

than their comrades less experienced in man[oe]uvring among the cordage.

Rossi was reverently committed to the earth in the Catholic burying-ground

of Singapore, and arrangements were at the same time made for the erection

of a small grave-stone over his distant resting-place, informing the

visitors to this "Court of Peace," that below reposes a member of the

_Novara_ Expedition, who had lost his life in the discharge of his duties.

As we were now at the season of the change of monsoon, at which period the

always difficult navigation of the narrow seas between Singapore and

Batavia demands an unusual degree of carefulness, in consequence of

frequent squalls, we engaged a pilot, who for a stipulated sum of 175

dollars was to convoy us to the next station on our voyage. Captain

Burrows, as our pilot was named, had the reputation of being a specially

competent, thoroughly trustworthy person, who for a long period had

navigated these waters in his own ship, and, as we were informed, had,

owing to some unfortunate speculations, been compelled to become a pilot

of other vessels, after having for years sailed in command of his own

ship. He had already come on board with his traps, but, as wind and tide

were both unfavourable, he obtained permission to return to shore till

sunset. This however the pilot did not do, and on the following morning,

finding he did not come off despite our signals, we set sail without him

about 9 A.M. with favourable wind and tide. No one could account for the

default of a pilot so strongly recommended on all hands, particularly as

all his baggage had remained on board, and must now of course make the

voyage to Batavia. For a moment we conjectured that he had immediately on

landing been seized by the dread distemper, only it seemed improbable we

should not have been informed of such a catastrophe. And in fact it

afterwards appeared that his having missed us was entirely due to his own

inattention.

We at first had intended to pass through the narrow strait of Rhio,[33] by

which the route is materially shortened, but as the squally weather had

fairly set in, while the breeze had crept round to the S.E., and the tide

set strong to the northwards, we abandoned this plan, and decided on

sailing through the channel between Horsburgh light-house and Bintang, so

as to pass to the eastward of this island as far as Graspar Straits, which

however we only reached the following day, owing to light fitful breezes

from the northwards. So soon as we entered Gaspar Straits we found the

sea, which is here of no great depth, never exceeding 25 fathoms, partly

covered with trunks of trees and sea-weed, while the water had lost its

transparency and was of a dirty green colour.

At 10 A.M. of the 25th April, we crossed the equator for the third time,

and the same day about 11 P.M. were in sight of the rocky island of Tothy,

a rain-squall from the N.E. blowing at the time. We passed between this

island and the dangerous because invisible Vega Rock, just below the

surface of the sea, and found ourselves in an archipelago of islands and

shoals requiring the utmost vigilance in navigating ships of large size.

But the moon, "the seaman's friend," shone brightly at night, and the

well-known transparency of the air in tropical countries enabled us even

during the hours of darkness to make out with perfect distinctness islands

lying 25 to 30 miles distant, so that we were by these means, coupled with

occasional casts of the lead, enabled on every occasion to make out with

sufficient exactness at what point we had arrived. We were so lucky as to

have never once throughout this intricate navigation been compelled to

cast anchor (as is so frequently the case here), and thus succeeded in

overhauling in Gaspar Straits more than one merchantman, that was a far

better sailer than the _Novara_.

On 30th April in 2 deg. 48' S., and 107 deg. 16' E., we celebrated the anniversary

of our departure from Trieste, with hearts filled with gratitude to the

illustrious projector of an expedition devoted to such lofty aims.

Although during our stay in Singapore the cholera had not alone carried

off its victims in the town, but also in the harbour, especially in the

screw corvette _Niger_, anchored in our immediate vicinity, which lost at

the rate of about a man daily till she changed her moorings, and

ultimately had to put to sea (which under such circumstances gives hope

from the very first for a change for the better in the requisite sanitary

conditions for restoring to health), yet the crew of the _Novara_ seemed

destined to escape the slightest evil effects from our six days' stay in

this plague-stricken harbour. But the result did not justify these

expectations. Five days after our departure from Singapore, just as we

were entering Gaspar Straits, one of the ship's boys fell ill with all

the symptoms of the Asiatic pestilence, and two days after the man

appointed to attend him was similarly seized. Every necessary precaution

was taken, the crew were kept as much as possible on deck, the band played

frequently, in order to keep up cheerfulness, and thus by great good

fortune the malady was confined to the two individuals seized. The

attendant ere long recovered, but the lad, after the choleraic symptoms

had subsided, gradually fell into a typhoid state, under which, despite

the utmost medical skill, he succumbed on the afternoon of May 4th. Owing

to the rapidity with which decomposition sets in in organic structures in

these hot latitudes, it was at once arranged that the body should be

committed to the deep the same evening. It was the first occasion

throughout the voyage that we had to perform this sad but most impressive

ceremony. The officers and crew mustered on the deck. The body wrapped in

an ensign lay upon a platform, close to the man-ropes on the starboard

side. The chaplain prayed over the corpse of one so young, about to rest

in the bosom of ocean far from friends and family, after which there was a

dull hollow sound; the sea had got his prey, the waves closed with sullen

glee over their booty,--and all was over!

In the course of the passage we also celebrated a funeral service on board

for Austria's great, never-to-be-forgotten commander, Field-marshal

Radetzky, of whose death we had shortly before been apprized. As far as

circumstances admitted, everything was done to celebrate this solemn duty

in a befitting manner.

Several times during this part of our voyage, owing to the slight depth,

averaging only 14 fathoms, of the Gaspar Strait, we observed sea-snakes

basking on the surface of the sea, and letting the waves roll them lazily

forward, several of which, about four feet long, were caught in a common

insect-net.

At last, on the afternoon of May 5, we anchored in the roads of Batavia,

in 6-1/2 fathoms, mud bottom. The aspect of the roads, especially in bad

weather, is rather melancholy, the coast being low and swampy, and densely

covered with mangrove-bushes, through which glittered a portion of the

red-tiled roofs of the lower ancient city of Batavia, now abandoned on

account of its insalubrity. Under a more cheerful sky the country round

would of course assume a more agreeable and even imposing appearance, when

the outline of the gigantic volcanoes of Java come into view in the

background, with their heavenward towering peaks, partly covered with

snow, permitting us to form some faint conception of the prodigality of

Nature in this, the most beautiful island of the Malay Archipelago.

In the roads of Batavia we found much less bustle and animation than one

could anticipate, considering the favourable situation and immense

importance of the place. A short distance from us lay the Dutch frigate

_Palembang_, carrying the flag of a Vice-admiral, and the steam-corvette

_Groeningen_, besides which we counted some sixty foreign merchantmen, and

over a hundred native boats and coasting vessels. This rather small

evidence of commercial activity is the more noticeable when one has just

come from the free port of Singapore, where several hundred ships are

always lying at anchor, sporting the flags of every sea-faring nation,

without taking account of the almost innumerable Chinese and Malay

coasters, trading between Singapore and the other islands of the Sunda

Archipelago. Moreover, there are here no small boats plying to and fro,

because the communications between the city and the roadstead being over a

space requiring an hour and a half to traverse, the transit is necessarily

dear, and remains therefore confined within as small limits as possible.

For a small boat with two rowers from the roads to the landing-place the

charge is from four to five florins (6_s._ 8_d._ to 8_s._ 4_d._), and

3-1/2 florins (5_s._ 10_d._) more for a vehicle to transport them to the

town. For this reason no artisans, trades-people, or washerwomen will come

off to where the shipping is at anchor, to take orders--every commission

of whatever nature must be executed in the city itself. Here we lay at

anchor, an Austrian frigate, surely a most unwonted visitant, from the

afternoon till the following morning without one single boat coming off to

visit us!

FOOTNOTES:

[27] City of Lions, from Singha, the Sanscrit for Lion, a title of Indian

princes, which we again meet with in Singhala, the kingdom of Lions, as

Ceylon is called in ancient records and histories.

[28] Captain Alexander Hamilton's "New Account of the East Indies,

1688-1723." Edinburgh, 1727. 8vo, Vol. II., p. 63.

[29] From this shrub is prepared the drug _Kino_, once much used in the

Pharmacop[oe]ia, but now displaced by _catechu_.

[30] A similar system prevails to this day throughout Hindostan, where the

necessity for convoy of specie forms one of the most important items of

expense in the maintenance of local police, outlying military stations,

&c. And unfortunately such a policy reacts upon the respect of the natives

for British rule, for seeing that even the government requires such

convoys, they naturally presume that government feels itself insecure, and

hence refuse to co-operate in the development of Indian resources.

[31] The net produce of an acre of land grown with poppy amounts to about

20 or 30 rupees, producing about 30 lbs of opium. The oil extracted from

the seed-vessels of the plant gives a return of from 2 to 3 rupees per

acre.

[32] Among the valuable contributions of the Russian Embassy to Pekin,

respecting China, its people, its religion, its political institutions,

its social peculiarities, &c., there is one long and very copious treatise

upon the Chinese reckoning-board, and the method of using it. See the

German translation of the work by Dr. Karl Abel, and F. T. Mecklenburg.

Berlin, F. Heinicke, 1856, vol. i. p. 295.

[33] The Rhio group of islands is about 50 miles S.E. of Singapore, the

most important of which is Bintang, with a town of the same name.

[Illustration: Javanese Weapons.]

XII.

Java.

Stay from 5th to 29th May, 1858.

Old and New Batavia.--Splendid reception.--Scientific

societies.--Public institutions.--Natives.--A Malay embassy.--

Excursion into the interior.--Buitenzorg.--The Botanic Garden.--

The Negro.--Prince Aquasie Boachi.--Pondok-Gedeh.--The infirmary

at Gadok, and Dr. Bernstein.--Megamendoeng.--Javanese villages.--

Tjipannas.--Ascent of Pangerango.--Forest scenery.--Javanese

resting-houses or Pasanggrahans.--Night and morning on the

summit of the volcano.--Visit to Gunung Gedeh.--The plantations

of Peruvian bark-trees in Tjipodas.--Their actual condition.--

Conjectures as to the future.--Voyage to Bandong.--Spots where

edible swallows'-nests are found.--Hospitable reception by a

Javanese prince.--Visit to Dr. Junghuhn in Lembang.--Coffee

cultivation.--Decay in value of the coffee bean of Java.--

Professor Vriese and the coffee planters of Java.--Free trade

and monopoly.--Compulsory and free labour.--Ascent of the

volcano of Tangkuban Prahu.--Poison Crater and King's Crater.--A

geological excursion to a portion of the Preanger Regency.--

Native fete given by the Javanese Regent of Tjiangoer.--A day at

the Governor-general's country-seat at Buitenzorg.--Return to

Batavia.--Ball given by the military club in honour of the

_Novara_.--Raden Saleh, a Javanese artist.--Barracks and

prisons.--Meester Cornelis.--French opera.--Constant changes

among the European society.--Aims of the colonial government.--

Departure from Batavia.--Pleasant voyage.--An English ship with

Chinese Coolies.--Bay of Manila.--Arrival in Cavite harbour.

In order to get from the roadstead of Batavia to the "Stad Herberg," the

sole landing-place for boats, distant some miles from the open sea, it is

necessary to steer for some distance up the canal-like channel of the

Tjiliwoeng (pronounced _Chili-wung_) River. Old Batavia (Jacatra), built

by the Dutch in 1619, on an extremely swampy and most unhealthy spot, is

at present entirely abandoned by the white population, and the numerous

handsome edifices still standing there are now only used as warehouses,

counting-houses, and offices generally. Where in days of yore a hundred

thousand human beings bustled to and fro, there are at present dwelling

but a couple of thousand wretched, poverty-stricken Portuguese and

Javanese. The Dutch in selecting such a site undoubtedly took their own

Amsterdam for a model, and the houses were accordingly built as close as

possible to each other, and several storeys high, a mode of building

eminently unsuited to a tropical climate, and accordingly adding another

element of insalubrity. The thick fog, which every evening at sundown

spreads over the city, situate as it is hardly above the level of the sea,

is not only very injurious to Europeans, but proves quite frequently

fatal, so that by 5 P.M. old Batavia assumes the appearance of a city of

the dead, and a regular emigration takes place in waggons, on horseback,

or on foot, to the more elevated and therefore more healthy parts of the

town, to Ryswick, Molenvliet, Weltevreden, &c., where during the last

twenty years an entirely new and very elegant settlement has sprung up.

Handsome villas rise amid the blooming fragrant gardens, and everything is

arranged in accordance with the requirements of a tropical climate; and

of an evening, when the low verandahs and beautifully furnished

drawing-rooms of these airy, well-ventilated mansions are profusely lit

up, and filled with a gaily-dressed social circle, while numbers of

equipages, carrying torches, flit through the wide streets, the whole

scene has quite a fairyland appearance. The gloom without makes the

dazzling brightness within-doors still more marked, and renders the law a

perfect boon, by which no native, so soon as it becomes dark, is permitted

to walk through the streets unless he carries a lighted torch (_obor_).

Owing to the distance intervening between each house, Batavia, although

numbering only 70,000 inhabitants, apparently covers a larger area than

Paris, and as the wealthy classes are concentrated in the upper quarters

of the town, just as they are in the West End of London, it is there that

one may see all that Batavia has to show of luxury, comfort, and elegance.

The old haughty, aristocratic capital of the Netherland Indies, whose

beauty once obtained for her the title of "Queen of the East," is found

here in more than pristine freshness, and not alone in wealth and

splendour, but even in social stiffness and pedantic etiquette, vies with

the most ultra-refined centres of fashion in Europe.

The _Novara_ had long been expected in Batavia, and months beforehand

orders had been issued by the Governor-general to all the Dutch colonies

in the East Indies, for the courteous reception of the Expedition, and

energetically assisting its members. A German merchant from Celebes, whom

we happened to meet the day of our arrival, informed us that in Macassar

the entire population had been for several months past looking for the

arrival of the foreign man-of-war, and those on the look-out at the

signal-station, as often as a large ship made its appearance on the

horizon, were continually hoping that it might prove to be the

long-expected visitor.

All that the resources of a mighty and generous power, such as is that of

Holland in Java, could furnish to make our short stay at the island as

agreeable and instructive as possible was exhibited on the most lavish

scale, and all that could be done to promote our objects in view by men of

science, of which Java possesses a considerable number, and even some of

European celebrity, was offered with the most praiseworthy alacrity.

Several eminent scholars and naturalists, headed by the renowned

ichthyologist, Dr. Bleeker, who shortly before had been decorated with an

Austrian order of merit for his valuable contributions to our knowledge of

the natural history of the Sunda Islands, did the honours, so to speak,

for the members of the scientific commission, of whom they became the

constant companions.

The very day we landed we visited the Museum, in the company of our new

friends, where we found an extremely interesting and most valuable

collection, principally of ethnographic objects. Here we saw idols of the

palmy days of Buddhism, made of bronze and silver, beautifully carved,

which came from the interior of Java, as also from Sumatra and the Engano

Islands; clothes of the bark of trees, garments of fish-scales, of a

species of _Scarus_ (probably _Scarus Schlosserii_), head-gear, armlets,

and necklaces of the teeth of men and wild animals, richly adorned

"creeses" or Malay daggers, lances and arrows of bamboo, whose iron heads

were poisoned by a wash of arsenic mixed with lemon-juice; a great variety

of musical instruments, among which were specimens of the well-known and

singular _Gamelang_, which consists of a row of bells of all sizes and

tones, which are struck with slender pieces of bamboo, and makes a regular

orchestra of bells. There was also a very singular-looking collection of

parasols, which as used by the natives are emblems of rank, and of which

there are no less than thirty different kinds. Any one may carry a simple

green, or blue, or black parasol, but those with gold thread or gold

tassels are only permitted to be used by persons of a certain social

standing, so that one may always know the social position of a Javanese by

the parasol he carries, just as among the Chinese, rank is indicated by

the number of peacock feathers, and the colour of the button on the

bonnet. The higher the rank, the broader is the gilded fringe, so that the

parasol of a Javanese prince of the highest rank is all gold together, and

when fully expanded consists of three parasols, one above the other, which

open by one and the same movement. Most of these parasols, prepared from

the leaves of the screw-pine, are imported hither from China.

In one of the rooms is a statue of Durga, one of the goddesses of the old

Hindoo mythology, moulded in metal, a present from the Sultan of

Surakarta in the centre of Java to one of the former governors of the

island, who presented this fine specimen of native art to the Museum. A

large number of Javanese and Sunda MSS., written on palm-leaves, have been

placed by, and at the expense of, the government in the hands of Dr.

Friedrich, a German philologist, to be deciphered and translated. In the

same apartment we saw a large number of trachytes, with very beautiful

sculptures and inscriptions, as also several figures from the island of

Bali, quite modern in aspect, carved in wood and coarsely painted,

representing some beautiful female figures; other hideous caricatures,

which are used by the natives as decorations of their household altar, but

without any religious significance being attached to them. The fact that

these sculptures are no longer, as formerly, executed in stone, but are

carved in wood, may be held to evidence the decay of this branch of art. A

rather considerable craniological collection, comprising some 60 heads of

the various types of races inhabiting the Malay Archipelago and the

adjoining continent, was in the most handsome manner presented to the

Expedition, and must, considering the many difficulties which stand in the

way of our acquiring correct scientific knowledge of this interesting

question, especially among races inhabiting uncivilized countries, be

regarded as an exceedingly valuable addition to our collections of objects

of natural history at home.

The Ethnographic Museum and the library attached are, however, only

branches thrown out by the indefatigable activity of the oldest

scientific society in Java, the _Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en

Wetenschappen_, which, founded in 1778 by the Europeans then resident in

Batavia, has since that period published some thirty volumes of valuable

statistics of the various objects of which it takes cognizance, and is in

correspondence with upwards of 150 learned societies. Since 1852 there has

also appeared under the auspices of this Society, conducted by three

members of the direction, Dr. Bleeker, Mr. Netscher, and Mr. Munnich, a

monthly journal of Indian History, as also of physical and ethnographic

statistics (the "_Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal Land en Volkenkunde_"),

of which seven volumes have already appeared, published in 8vo. Not less

valuable, especially in the interests of natural science, is the

Association known as the "_Natuurkundige Vereeniging_," which has been in

existence since 1850, and, under the superintendence of that indefatigably

active scholar Dr. Bleeker, has within that period published a

considerable number of most interesting memoirs, while the Society for the

advancement of Medical Science (_Vereeniging tot Bevordering der

Geneeskundige Wetenschappen in Nederlandsch Indie_), under the guidance of

the distinguished Dr. G. Wassink, has given to the world through its

annual publications a large variety of experiences and observations on the

study of Medicine.[34] All these scientific institutions are the more

deserving of commendation, when we reflect that there are but 6000

emigrants from Holland, scattered abroad throughout the Netherland

Indies, of whom only some 3000 are in Batavia, and that the white

population is for the most part constantly changing. It is obvious this

latter condition must have this prejudicial effect, that the various

branches of scientific inquiry cannot always enjoy a uniform degree of

attention, and that the task of maintaining them in a proper degree of

efficiency must depend almost exclusively upon the continuance in office

and constant attention of individuals. Owing to this frequency of change

the active prosecution of scientific inquiry has undergone marked

fluctuations in Batavia, and while occasionally it was at the lowest ebb,

so to speak, at another time, as happily was the case at the period of our

visit, it presents, in the convergence of numerous powerful minds devoted

to the pursuit of knowledge, the imposing spectacle of a strong set of

public opinion towards intellectual enjoyment and cultivation.

Accompanied by Dr. Bleeker the members of the Expedition visited several

of the most interesting of the public institutions, the establishment of

which reflects the greatest honour on the government, as well as the

public-spirited individuals who projected them. The Military and Civil

Hospital at Tjiliwoeng, or Great River, does not indeed present the

palace-like appearance of the Misericordia Hospital at Rio, but the small

neat buildings, one storey high, scattered among beautiful flower-gardens,

and occupying a flat space of great extent, are kept scrupulously clean,

and are arranged with great comfort. Six physicians are on duty here, and

the most exemplary care and attention are bestowed on patients. Officers

and public servants who fall sick have, in particular, large, light, airy,

elegantly furnished apartments; other patients are received into lofty,

well-ventilated, spacious halls, usually holding from 50 to 60 beds.

Altogether the hospital can accommodate 600 patients. The most common

diseases are dysentery, intermittent fever, and heart and liver

complaints. Here we saw numerous cases of _Beri-Beri_ (the Barbiers of

English medical writers), that singular, usually incurable disease which

begins with intermittent fever, and generally ends with paralysis of the

spinal chord. In the year 1857, of 500 patients at Batavia no fewer than

348 were attacked with this frightful complaint, of whom 249 died within a

brief space. In the medical section of the _Novara_ publications will be

found a complete account of this most interesting malady, which

fortunately is very limited in its ravages, and hitherto has been almost

exclusively confined to the natives.

In one of the wards we were shown a Dutch sailor labouring under an

asthmatic attack, whose hands and feet had been shockingly mutilated in

1846 by pirates in the Straits of Malacca. We also found among the

patients several German sailors and soldiers, whose transports of joy were

unmistakeable on hearing once more the sound of their native language, and

at the opportunity of conversing with a fellow-countryman.

The heavy expense of building in Batavia, and the anxious vigilance

exercised over those of the community who are sick, will best be

understood from the fact that one single new ward, making up from 60 to 80

beds, cost the government about 60,000 guilders (L5000). One of the

buildings, at a little distance from the rest, is set apart for female

invalids, as also for lunatics and sick prisoners. Attached to this

hospital is a school of midwifery for the instruction of native women in

obstetrics, which at the period of our visit was attended by sixteen women

from various islands in the Malay Archipelago, and which, in a land where

the birth of a child is accompanied by so many superstitious and hideous

ceremonies, cannot fail to be followed by most beneficial results.

One very important and useful establishment is the Javanese medical school

(_Geneeskundige School voor Inlanders_), which, founded in 1851 by Mr.

Bosch, at that period chief of the medical staff, is intended to supply

the sons of the more prominent natives of Java and the adjacent islands

with a thorough training in and acquaintance with the art of medicine as

practised in Europe. Government defrays the travelling expenses of these

youths, as also all expenses of maintenance and education. Among the

four-and-twenty scholars here, we saw sons of native princes of Java,

Palembang, Celebes, Amboina, Ceram, Sumatra, and Borneo, who intended

following up the profession; and it is worthy of remark that two natives

of Menado in the island of Celebes of the savage cannibal race of the

Alfuras, were pointed out to us as among the most apt and docile of the

scholars! Those of the students who are Christians, are clothed in the

dress of Europeans, the rest, chiefly Mahometans, wear Oriental attire.

Instruction is imparted in Malay, since as a rule not one of the students

on entering the college understands a word of Dutch. For the same reason

the books usually employed in instruction cannot be made use of, while,

owing to the poverty of the Malay language, any translation into it must

be fraught with difficulty. All technical names are therefore converted

into Latin. The course of instruction is carried on the first year in the

class-room, the second by the bed-side of the patient, or the dead body.

After strict and thorough examination each pupil receives a diploma as a

"Doctor--Java," besides a monthly salary of from L2 2_s._ to L2 10_s._,

and an outfit of the most important drugs and surgical instruments. By

this system some fifty young men have already returned to their homes as

physicians and government officials, and thus greatly contribute to the

extension of European civilization.

In the chief streets of Batavia the stranger comes upon some small open

watch-houses, or rather huts, consisting simply of four poles and a roof

of palm thatch, in which is suspended a long, slender piece of wood

(_Tong-tong_), which is used for three different objects. The Javanese who

in this little hut is watching over the property and personal safety of

the inhabitants, strikes the _Tong-tong_ with a sort of drum-stick, in

order to announce the hours of the night, or to give notice of the

outbreak of a fire, or in case of any one _running a-muck_. This singular

phenomenon, in which a Malay with open knife or drawn dagger rushes madly

through the streets, and seeks to kill every one he encounters, occurs

perhaps a dozen times a year. The first murder is very probably

intentional, the offspring of hate or revenge, but that once accomplished,

the murderer, usually under the influence of opium, runs recklessly

forward through the streets, with the wild cry of "Amok"--"Amok"

(Kill!--Kill!), knocking down and stabbing whoever he encounters. As one

can only approach the miscreant at the peril of one's life, there is kept

in these watch-houses a peculiarly constructed weapon of long wooden

staves, and shaped at the upper end not unlike a hay-fork, with which the

desperate wretch can be seized. The various methods in which the Tong-tong

is struck at once conveys notice as to which one of the three

announcements conveyed by the instrument it is the watchman's object to

make.

The natives, although they divide themselves into the Java and Sunda

nations, belong nevertheless to the same race, viz. the Malay, and are

readily recognizable by their short thickset form, round face, wide mouth,

short narrow nose, small black eyes, by their brown complexion, verging on

yellow, and their luxuriant but always rough and coarse hair. As to their

moral characteristics, the Javanese are a mild, easily contented,

temperate, simple, industrious people. The principal occupation of the

10,000,000 inhabitants of Java and Madura, is agriculture, which with

them is at least equally, if not in a much higher degree, understood by

them than by any other Asiatic community, with the exception of the

Chinese. This is apparent from the neatness and careful cultivation of

their fields, the excellent condition of their farm-stock, the careful

observance of seed-time and harvest, and above all by their regular

irrigation of the soil. When Java first became known to Europeans, the

chief produce of the island consisted of rice, leguminous vegetables,

indigo, and cotton. Intercourse with Europe has superadded to these two

American products, maize and tobacco, and one African, coffee.[35] The

Javanese have even less time for the mechanical arts than for agricultural

pursuits, yet in the construction of boats and dwelling-houses, as also in

making agricultural implements, shields and weapons of war, they have more

aptitude than the majority of the people of the Malay Archipelago.[36] The

only other stuff, except cotton, of which they make clothing is silk,

chiefly the raw, coarse, Chinese silk; all endeavours to naturalize the

silk production in these islands having failed hitherto.

In addition to the ordinary language used for communication and every-day

purposes there are in Java two special idioms,--Javanese in the centre and

east of the island, and Sunda in the west of the island. The small river

Losari in the province of Cheribon on the north side of the island

indicates the boundary line of the two languages. Owing to the

circumstance that both the idioms are used in Cheribon, many writers have

deduced thence the origin of the name of that province, which signifies in

Javanese "mingled," or mixed. The Javanese tongue, which of the two is far

the more highly cultivated, has been a written language for untold ages,

and its alphabet is universally used among the Sunda groups as well as in

the adjoining Malay groups. Various inscriptions in stone and brass carry

us back in the history of Java to the 12th century, and it would almost

seem that the Javanese at that period had already attained the same degree

of civilization as when four centuries later the Europeans for the first

time landed on their soil.

Of the original Javanese language there are three dialects,--the language

of the populace (Ngoko), or low Javanese, the ceremonial language (Kromo),

known as high Javanese, and the old mystical dialect, or _Kawi_.

Javanese has borrowed a number of words from Sanscrit, Arabic, and

Telingu, especially since the introduction of religion and commerce.

One of the most important events in the history of the Javanese was their

conversion to Brahmanism, and still later to Mahometanism. The precise

period at which the first of these took place seems to be as yet quite

uncertain, but this much is known, that from the 13th to the 15th century

Brahmanism prevailed in Java. The conversion of the Javanese to Islam,

whose religion is at present professed by the great majority of the

inhabitants,[37] took place in 1478 under the ruler of Salivana, after

Arabian, Persian, Malay, and Mahometan Hindoos had since the year 1358

vainly endeavoured to introduce that faith.[38]

In addition to the native population there is also a large number of

foreign settlers in Java, of whom the Chinese constitute far the largest

contingent. Their number is above 140,000, and would be much greater were

their attempts at colonization not kept down by numerous limitations, and

heavy taxes and imposts. The Chinese, who in more than one respect may be

regarded as the Jews of India, are only admitted by the Indian Government

at certain points of the coast, and in many of the Regencies must not

transgress those limits. Although they are extraordinarily industrious,

ingenious, and well suited for hard labour, yet the government is of

opinion that their unchecked intercourse with the natives would inevitably

prove prejudicial to the latter, who are plundered by the Chinese in every

possible manner. Their main, indeed sole, object is to make money, and at

all public auctions it is they who chiefly buy at a small price, and

directly afterwards succeed in getting off their purchases at an enormous

advance. One can purchase of these Chinese dealers at prices almost

unheard of for cheapness, but quality and lasting capabilities are not

guaranteed. A German writer compares the Kampong or Chinese quarter to a

Polish country town on a fair day. Every house and store is crammed with

all manner of useless trash, and everywhere there is the utmost bustle.

The most various articles are exposed for sale in each magazine. Here too

are found the Chinese theatrical booths, in which at various hours

throughout the day Chinese comedians, richly dressed in Chinese fashion,

perform Chinese plays, which are applauded by a numerous ragged auditory,

collected in the open space in front!

Each Chinese colony, or _Kampong_, has a chief, appointed by government,

with the title of lieutenant, captain, or major, available within the

limits of the Kampong, but which, it is needless to say, confers no

military privileges. Those of the Chinese residing in Java belong to

mutual societies, whose members assist each other, and which have not

merely humanitarian, but also political tendencies.

We are in possession of the affiliation-ticket of a member of the native

Chinese society of Hoei, or Tuite-Huy (Brotherhood of the Heavens and the

Earth), printed on a fabric of reddish cotton, which bears 91 various

written characters, for the following translation of which, as also for

the accompanying particulars respecting the objects of this very

remarkable society, we are indebted to the kindness of the renowned

Chinese scholar, Professor J. Neumann of Munich:--

"The Brotherhood of the Heavens and the Earth frankly declares that it

considers itself called on by the Supreme Being to put an end to the

frightful contrast between wealth and poverty. In its view the possessors

of earthly power and wealth have come into this world under the same

ceremonies, and leave it in the same manner, as their defrauded brothers,

the poor and oppressed. The Supreme Being never willed that millions

should be held in slavery by a few thousands. Father Heaven and Mother

Earth have never conferred on the few thousands the right to swallow up

the property of millions of their brethren for the mere satiating their

own luxury. To the rich and powerful their fortunes were never bestowed by

the Supreme Being as an exceptional right; it consists rather in the

labour and the 'sweat of the brow' of the millions of their oppressed

brethren. The sun with his beaming face, the earth with her treasures of

wealth, the universe with all its joys, are boons common to all, and must

be seized from the grasp of the few thousands for the satisfaction of the

necessities of the naked millions. The world must ultimately be purged of

all oppression and woe; this must be initiated in brotherly unity, must

be steadily followed up with mind and hand, and must be completed. The

good seed of this brotherhood must not be stifled beneath noxious weeds,

rather is it our duty to root up these noxious weeds, that overshadow all

things, to the benefit and advancement of the good seed. The problem, be

it frankly confessed, is a mighty and a difficult one, but let each man

bethink him, that there is no victory, no redemption without storm and

strife. Until the great majority of the dwellers of all the cities of each

province have taken the oath of fidelity, each man may continue outwardly

to obey the mandarins, and ingratiate himself with the police by presents.

Ill-timed demonstrations will injure the plan. So soon as the majority of

the inhabitants in each city and province has acceded to the bond of our

union, the old monarchy must fall to the ground, and we shall be able to

found the new reign upon the ruins of the old. Millions of grateful

brethren shall honour the founders of our brotherhood after they shall

have gone to the grave, mindful of the mighty benefit they have

conferred;--the redemption from chains and bondage of a ruined social

system."

[Illustration: The Seal of Union of the Brotherhood of the Heavens and the

Earth.]

The seal of union of this Brotherhood of the Heavens and the Earth is

engraved with numerous hieroglyphics, and many-cornered in its inner

circumference, emblematic of the supreme states of felicity, according to

Chinese notions, viz. wisdom, justice, posterity, honour, and riches.

These five states of felicity correspond to their five elements, earth,

wood, water, metal, fire, whose symbols figure at the corner of the seal.

Immediately below are seen certain other engraved emblems, indicating

mighty undaunted leaders, ancient heroes of China, who are standing

closely together with unshaken front. Then follow a number of proverbs,

partly of symbolic significance, and in rhythmical sayings, such as:--

In close array the ranks of heroes stand,

Obedient to the master-mind's command.

One tie unites the old and the young brethren; in order of battle old and

young are intermingled. Each man stands ready to obey the smallest signal

of his immediate commander. As the swollen mountain torrent spreads itself

over the level ground, innumerable bands of these pour forth on all sides:

Mingle brown, and white, and red,

And strike till ev'ry foe lie dead.

The by-laws of this secret society are so strict that there is hardly an

example on record of a member incurring a denunciation, or being guilty of

treason. In consequence of the cloud of mystery which envelopes these

societies, they are the more dangerous, because unassailable by the

government. And accordingly, all precautions hitherto taken for

suppressing these secret societies of the Chinese population have proved

unavailing. Secret societies however are anything but forbidden under

Dutch rule in Java,--on the contrary, it is rather _bon ton_ to belong to

some one of the lodges of freemasonry existent out there.

Before setting out on our excursion into the interior of Java, we had an

opportunity of being present at the festivities which it is customary to

get up on the occasion of the reception of an embassy from one of the

native princes. On the present occasion it was the ministers of the Kings

of the Island of Lombok,[39] eastward of Java, who had to deliver on

behalf of their illustrious masters letters for H. E. the Governor-general

of the Dutch East Indies. During the whole of their stay they were

maintained at the expense of government in the house of a specially

appointed master of the ceremonies, a native of the Island of Borneo, and

nephew of the Sultan of Pontianab, whose official position imposes upon

him the duty of showing all that is worth seeing in the city to these

occasional illustrious Malay guests. Both ministers were accompanied

everywhere by a Malay dolmetsch, although they spoke Javanese with the

utmost fluency, in addition to their mother tongue.

On the day of the reception they made their appearance in ceremonial

dress, and in gala "turn-outs," at the government palace, where they were

presented to the Governor-general by the Resident of Batavia, the highest

authority in the city. The master of the ceremonies took charge of the

letters of the Kings of Lombok, as also of two immense spears, at least

twelve feet long, each richly gilt and gaily bedecked with yellow

tissue,[40] which were presented by the ambassadors as presents from the

Kings of Lombok to the Governor-general. It is however strictly forbidden

to the Dutch employes to accept any presents of the most trifling nature,

and even in cases such as the present, where the refusal of the gifts

would be an insult to the donor, all such must be sold for the benefit of

the treasury, or at least a corresponding amount must be returned by the

receiver out of the state treasury. Accordingly, it is the custom to

recompense all presents made by the various regents with others of far

greater value.[41]

At the entrance to the palace a guard of honour of European soldiers was

drawn up in full uniform, between whose ranks the ambassadors were ushered

into the hall of reception. One of the attendants now held a large

rich-looking, highly-gilt parasol above the letter of the Kings of Lombok,

which was borne along by the master of the ceremonies on a silver waiter.

A similar mark of distinction was conferred on the two ambassadors and the

resident. The Governor-general in full official uniform, and surrounded by

a number of government officials, received the embassy on a platform,

where he sat on a beautifully covered gilt chair, canopied with costly

tapestry. The elder of the two ambassadors, having been introduced by the

resident, thereupon proceeded to say that he was charged to present the

homage of his master to the Dutch Government, and to remit a letter. On a

formal sign by the Governor-general, the government interpreter, Mr.

Nitscher, took the letter off the silver waiter, at which moment a salute

of nine cannon-shot was fired in the garden behind the palace, to announce

to the people outdoors the moment at which the king's letter had been

received. The letter, enveloped in yellow silk, and written in Malay with

Arabic characters, was thereupon opened by the government interpreter, and

read with a loud voice, after which it was translated into Dutch. In a

similar manner the reply of the Governor-general was translated for the

two ambassadors into the Malay language.

At last, after these stiff and wearisome formalities had been gone

through, the ambassadors were invited to occupy chairs that had been

specially prepared for them next the Governor-general, when a short

exchange took place of civilities and commonplace phrases, until the

Governor-general gave the signal for breaking up, by rising from his seat.

The ambassadors were thereupon ushered forth in the same ceremonious

manner in which they had entered.

The occasion of the present embassy was a dispute with the Sultan of

Sumbawa, in which the Kings of Lombok invoked the mediation of the Dutch

Government. The Sultan of Sumbawa had in fact refused to restore two

subjects of the Kings of Lombok who had fled to Sumbawa. But for the

preponderating influence of the Dutch Government the two disputants would

long before have resorted to war.

On the 13th May we set forth in two large and very comfortable coaches for

Buitenzorg (signifying in Dutch "on the farther side of sorrow"), the

usual residence of the Governor-general, who only comes to Batavia on

certain days in the month to give audiences. He had not alone invited the

members of the Expedition to visit the Preanger Regencies as guests of the

government, and caused arrangements to be made for their ascending with as

little trouble as possible the volcanic peak of Gunung Pangerango (10,194

feet), but likewise detached one of his adjutants, M. de Kock, and Dr.

Bleeker, both well acquainted with the natural history of the country, to

accompany us upon this excursion. Messengers were sent in advance, to

announce our approach at each station, so as to secure us a comfortable

and courteous reception wherever we wished to pass a few hours, or to take

a night's rest.

Buitenzorg is distant from the capital 39 paals or Javanese miles,[42]

which distance, thanks to the excellence of the roads and the horses in

Java, is traversed in about three hours, two "loopers," or runners, as is

the custom here, as elsewhere in the East, accompanying each coach, who

are incessantly on and off the waggon, yelling and cracking their long

whips at the horses to keep them to their speed. About every five paals,

or 4-3/4 miles (English), the cattle and the runners are changed, so that

an unvarying speed is attained. All along the roads stretches the

telegraphic wire, which unites Batavia in one direction with Angier (75

miles) and Surabaya (543 miles).[43] The wood of which each post is

constructed is the _Kapok_ tree, a species of _Gossypium_, or cotton tree,

and here for the first time we saw the slender, tightly-strained wires

suspended on the stem of a luxuriant green tree. Thus, if the experiment

succeeds, the elsewhere naked, dead telegraph-poles will here be made at

once useful and productive, as each post that supports the wire will

produce a small quantity of cotton.

Buitenzorg possesses one of the finest and most extensive botanical

gardens in the world. It was laid out as far back as 1817, during the

vice-royalty of Baron van Capellen. The distribution of the various orders

is contrived equally to assist and promote the instruction of the general

observer, and to accustom the naturalist to the phenomena of Eastern

vegetation. Each order of plants has its own area. The various species of

palms are the most extensively represented, and there is scarcely one of

the genus, whether ornamental or useful, found in the Netherland Indies

or Australia, of which a representative is not to be found here. The

superintendence of this garden has been intrusted to that indefatigable

_hortulanus_, Mr. J. C. Teijsmann, who in his department assisted to the

utmost the objects of the _Novara_ Expedition. He not only presented us

with duplicates of all the more valuable plants in his very extensive

collection, but also with valuable seeds. By such kind co-operation we

found ourselves provided with some twenty various species of fibrous

plants, amongst others the well-known Rame-shrub (_Boehmeria utilis_), and

that useful species of wild plantain, the _Musa textilis_ (from the leaves

of which is manufactured Manila hemp), as also twenty-four different

species of rice. Of these latter two were of special interest, one needing

no watering, but flourishing best in mountainous, dry soil, the other

being chiefly used by the natives for the preparation of a dye.

Mr. Teijsmann has the great merit of having been the first to introduce

into Java the cultivation of the valuable and costly Vanilla plant

(_Vanilla planifolia_), by using artificial means of fructification, after

all the many expensive experiments previously made had failed, because the

insect which effects the fructification of the plant in its original

climate, the West Indies, is not found in Java. At present the yield is so

great, that not alone does Mr. Teijsmann annually secure and send to

market several hundredweights of this aromatic pod, but several other

landowners have applied themselves to the laying out of Vanilla

plantations. The fruit, from six to ten inches in length, by three to five

lines in width, of a dark brown colour, flexible, and somewhat unctuous to

the touch, requires about five months to ripen. They are carefully dried,

first in the shade and afterwards in the sun, and are then packed away in

bundles in air-tight metal cases. One hundred pounds of fresh pods yield

about one pound of the Vanilla of commerce. Formerly the value of a pound

of Vanilla was as high as L6 sterling, but it is at present sold at about

L4.

In the beautifully situated Hotel Bellevue, where we lived while at

Buitenzorg, we chanced to become acquainted with a curious individual, a

young negro named Aquasie Boachi, son of an African prince of Coomassie,

the chief city of the kingdom of Ashantee on the Gold Coast,[44] who,

while a child of nine years, had been sent by the colonial government to

Europe, in order to be educated in Germany. It was the intention to make

apparent what early education and instruction can do for the negro, and

how the present low state of the black race is principally attributable to

their oppression hitherto, and to the limited application, in their case,

of European civilization. The experiment proved most satisfactory. Aquasie

Boachi speaks German, English, Dutch, and French quite fluently, and holds

a diploma, as mining engineer, from the mining academy of Freiberg in

Saxony. He is a pupil of the celebrated Professor Bernhard Cotta, whom he

still remembers with affection and gratitude. As Aquasie had become a

Christian he could not, save at the risk of his life, return to his

heathenish native land, to the bosom of his own family. The Dutch

Government accordingly, regarding him in the light of a victim to

philanthropical experiments, at present pays the young miner out of the

state funds about L400 per ann., and occasionally employs him on mining

researches. Aquasie had resolved to settle for life in Germany, where, as

he told us, he felt himself thoroughly at home, but the climate did not

agree with him, upon which he returned to Java, and had since occupied

himself in coffee-culture.

From the terrace of the hotel one enjoys a magnificent prospect bounded by

the mountains around. On the right rises a lofty peak, whose summit-cone

has been cloven into three pinnacles, the Gunung Salak 7204 feet

(English), an extinct volcano, from which, however, in 1699 issued immense

volumes of sand and mud, accompanied by columns of flames, tremendous

bellowings, and convulsions of the soil. The torrent of liquid mud hurried

along trunks of trees, carcasses of animals, tame as well as wild,

crocodiles and fish, and, still preserving its character of a mud torrent,

rushed into the sea near Batavia, stopping up the mouths of several rivers

and brooks. Since then this colossal hill, torn to its innermost core by

this fearful eruption, has remained silent, and peaceful fields,

alternating with luxuriant forest, stretch upwards to the very flanks of

its once dreaded summit. To the left of Gunung Salak, and in appearance

and elevation far more imposing, stands out the Gedee Range. Its highest

point is the tapering regular cone of Gunung Pangerango, still further to

the left of which rises, almost equal in height, the bare rocky wall of

the still active crater of Gunung Gedeh, from the abyss of which there

occasionally issued light clouds of vapour. But this exquisite landscape

unveils itself to the ravished view of the beholder only during the early

hours of morning. By 10 A.M. thin vapours have gathered round those lofty

summits, which gradually accumulate as noon approaches, until by 3 P.M.

there is almost invariably a dense mass of clouds resting over the entire

range, which very frequently dissolve with fearful violence in the shape

of tremendous tropical thunder-storms. The annual rainfall at Buitenzorg

would seem to be higher than at any other spot on the face of the earth.

During some years it occasionally attains the depth of 200 inches

(English), which is far beyond the utmost known in Central or Southern

America.[45]

The evening we spent at the residence of M. Van de Groote, inspector of

the tin-mines of Banka and Borneo, who was of very great use to the

geologist of the Expedition, and at whose hospitable house we met a number

of personages of distinction.

On the following morning (14th May), before prosecuting our journey, we

made an excursion to the neighbouring Batoetoelis (pronounced

Batootoolis), as a number of trachytic rocks are called, to which young

Javanese wives, who wish to become mothers, ascribe the most marvellous

virtues. The inscriptions hewn on the stones have been deciphered by the

German philologist, Dr. Friedrich. There is also shown a stone with a

depression like a human foot, which tradition asserts to be the footstep

of a native prophet, who is supposed to have stood thereon at a time when

the mass was not yet solid and hardened. There evidently is some

association of ideas similar to that of the Cingalese respecting Adam's

Peak, but without the poetic colouring of the latter.

From Buitenzorg we went to Tjipannas,[46] a country-seat of the

Governor-general, at the foot of Pangerango. The road from Buitenzorg to

Tjipannas is part of the great post-road from Batavia to Surabaya, which

just at this point traverses the mountain pass of Mengamendoeng, 4925

feet high, an outlier of the Gedeh range. It passes at first through

richly-cultivated properties, with splendid rice-crops, and a little

further on through coffee plantations, after which comes uninhabited

wilderness, when the road becomes so steep that a pair of buffalos are

harnessed in front of the horses of each carriage. _En route_ we visited

at Pondok-Gedeh the beautiful property of the family of Van den Bosch,

whose founder greatly distinguished himself in promoting the agricultural

prosperity of the island, while Governor-general of the colony, 1830-33.

In the extensive gardens here we saw several large species of _Vanilla_

and _Cactus_ (_Nopal_), the latter of which are devoted to the propagation

and gathering of the diminutive cochineal insect, from which is procured

such a valuable dye. In 1826, a pair of this very fecund insect were

brought from Spain to Java, and at present[47] there are in Pondok-Gedeh

alone 500,000 plants, from which between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds of

cochineal are obtained annually, while other gardens of Nopal of equal

size occur elsewhere throughout the island. We were also filled with

astonishment at the variety and richness of the brushwood and forest

trees, which the European is accustomed to see only as diminutive, tender

specimens, the rare plants of a hot-house! Under the influence of a

tropical climate, and a fruitful soil, the tea plant, the nutmeg, the

cinnamon, the sugar-cane, the coffee bean, and the indigo, all flourish

in wildest profusion, and the various warehouses are as crammed with the

splendid produce of these valuable colonial staples as our northern

granaries are with the necessaries of subsistence in the shape of dried

fruits.[48]

Quite close to Pondok-Gedeh, amid the majestic mountain scenery of Gadok,

is the _maison de Sante_ of Dr. Steenstra Toussaint, which enjoys a

well-earned reputation under the management of Dr. Bernstein, a German

physician and naturalist. Invalid residents of the coast, when recovering

from climatic diseases, make a point of hurrying to this institution, in

order to benefit by the keen, bracing mountain air. Dr. Bernstein is, as

far as his professional engagements will admit, at once a zealous

collector, and a skilful preparer, who has already made some very

beautiful collections, and who, if he stay here any length of time, will

be in a position to enrich considerably the museums of natural history in

Europe, with numerous rare and valuable specimens.

Just at the summit of the pass of Megamendoeng (dark cloud), begin the

Preanger Regencies. This pass moreover forms a boundary line between the

Malay language, chiefly used for commercial transactions along the coast,

and that of Sunda, the difference between which two idioms, as regards the

uninformed stranger is only so far important, that in asking a native for

a light for his cigar, he must now say "Sono," instead of "Api," as

hitherto, always supposing that he is a smoker, a qualification which

rarely fails to appertain to the inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies.

Here, in a wooden building open on all sides, and commanding an exquisite

panoramic view, we partook of a _dejeuner a la fourchette_, prepared quite

in the European style, after which, amidst a drenching thunder-plump, we

pursued our course to Tjipannas, which lies about 1000 feet below the

level of the pass.

At every village we passed, the authorities, as is the custom of the

country, provided us with an escort. Thus we almost constantly had some 20

or 30 persons riding behind our carriages. The poor people had indued

themselves in their best apparel, and looked very pretty in their varied

fantastic attire. Even the rain, which still continued to descend in

torrents, did not prevent them from following us, in order to do justice

to the requirements of Javanese etiquette. So too, every one whom we met

on the road assumed a respectful attitude, resting on the knees in a

half-kneeling position, and cowering down in the road with folded hands,

till our vehicle had rolled by. All the villages we saw had a very neat,

clean, cheerful appearance. The houses of the Javanese (with the exception

of those of the native authorities) are as a rule built entirely of

bamboo, part being of wicker-work, part of the cane placed either side by

side, or above each other, the whole roofed in with palm-leaves, or

Allang grass (_Imperata Allang_), or narrow shingles of cut bamboo, and

with a flooring raised two or three feet above the level of the soil. The

beautiful yellow wicker-work is usually stained in alternate squares of so

black a colour that the walls of a Javanese hut resemble nothing so much

as a gigantic draught-board. Under the eaves of the dwelling, which

project five or six feet, and is supported in front upon poles, so that

there is a sort of verandah beneath, are suspended cages with various

feathered inhabitants, which the Javanese cherish with much tenderness, or

else a very peculiarly constructed bee-hive, consisting of a bamboo-cane,

six or nine inches thick by three or four feet in length, which is split

through the centre, hollowed out, and fastened together again on the upper

side.

Through a small orifice left in front, this artificial cavity is within a

week or two peopled with a swarm of tiny stingless bees (_Meliporia

minuta_) which in the wild state inhabit the holes and cavities of the

calcareous cliffs, and provide the Javanese with honey and wax. The latter

product is blackish, slimy, and adhesive, and is employed in the

delineation of the beautifully coloured figures in the gowns (_Sarongs_)

of the native women.

[Illustration: Javanese Bee-hive.]

At the station of Tjianjawar, we were saluted, while changing horses, by a

Javanese chief, from Tjiangoer, named Radben Rangga Padma Negara, who,

despite the tremendous tropical rains, accompanied us on horseback in his

rich uniform, overlaid with gold lace, as far as Tjipannas, where we were

received by two government officials, and welcomed with the utmost

cordiality. Here it was arranged we were to pass the night, so as, early

the following morning, to make the ascent of Gunung Pangerango. We also

found awaiting us a letter from Dr. Junghuhn, the renowned geologist and

writer on the natural history of Java, who for years has resided about a

day's journey from Tjipannas, at Lembang, at the foot of Tankuban-Prahu,

and has latterly been engaged by government to superintend the china-plant

cultivation. Dr. Junghuhn had come to meet us as far as Tjipodas, where

the first attempts at cultivation of the china plant were being made with

roots imported from South America, but, owing to a press of important

business, was compelled to return to his own station before we reached the

Preanger Regencies. This estimable German gentleman urgently besought us,

by letter, to visit him in his forest abode, and painted in the most

glowing colours the wonders of Nature, and the interest in a scientific

point of view of his mighty mountain neighbour. At the same time he sent

over his learned assistant, Dr. de Vrij, to welcome in his name the

Austrian travellers, to explain to them in all their detail the

Cinchona-plantations at the foot of Pangerango, and to enlighten them as

to the present condition and prospects of this very important branch of

cultivation.

On the morning of 15th May we set off on horseback for the Pangerango,

which was covered with dense vapours, which wholly concealed it from view,

and rather damped our hopes of enjoying a fine view from the summit. A

path for horses has been made to the very top, and although at certain

points this passes over exceedingly steep ground, yet the Javanese horses

climb with such safety and dogged perseverance, even in the most dangerous

spots, that one may leave these small but powerful animals to choose their

way, with as much confidence as in the case of that most sure-footed of

animals, the mule of South America. Our cavalcade consisted of thirty

riders, while an immense number of natives took on themselves the duties

of an honorary body-guard. The forests, usually so lonely, were now alive

with hundreds of men, busy transporting our horses, provisions, couches,

tables, and stores, which were all to be conveyed to the highest peak of

the mountain, where we intended to spend the evening. After we had

attained a considerable distance from Tjipannas, constantly ascending till

we were about 4000 feet above it, we found the flanks of the mountain

quite free of wood. The traveller sees a few villages scattered at random,

and rides over grass pasturages, on which are feeding troops of buffalos,

alternating with plantations of tobacco or coffee. But at the very point

where the forest gradually begins, where gigantic trees have been left

standing like so many sentinels, there it is that the amazed European

falls in with most luxuriant beds of artichokes and strawberries, and is

welcomed on this distant soil by all the well-known fruits of his remote

home. The path leads past Tjipodas, into a deep narrow valley, overgrown

with the most luxuriant vegetation, and thence through a forest of

indescribable majesty, filled with the straight, tapering, pillar-shaped

trunks, 80 to 100 feet in height, of the imposing Rasamala

(_Liquidambar-Altingiana_), and a thoroughly tropical underwood of wild

_Musaceae_, and splendid tree-ferns, till finally the broad plateau-shaped

Tjiburum (red-water) is reached. Here at an elevation of 5100 feet we

found some Pasanggrahans, or resting-houses, erected by government for the

shelter and accommodation of all travellers through these mountain

solitudes, who may happen to be surprised by night, or inclement weather.

Such hostelries are found everywhere in the interior of Java, especially

in those districts where they are most likely to be needed by European

travellers, or by government employes, during their frequent tours of

inspection, in which they occasionally undergo severe privations. At

Tjiburum, lying far above the regions inhabited by man, there is a small

nursery of useful plants of colder climes, bearing ample testimony to the

indefatigable activity of Mr. Teijsmann of Buitenzorg, to whom the

community is moreover chiefly indebted for the laying out of the entire

road to the summit of the mountain. As there was every indication of a

severe storm coming on, and as we hoped by pressing forward to get to our

goal before it should burst, we halted here only long enough to change

horses. This done we again resumed the ascent, much refreshed by the

delay, which imparted renewed vigour to climb the steep zig-zag pathway,

which now led through a gloomy, silent forest, whence not a sound issued

except the _blowing_ of our cattle, as they breasted the steep, and far

below us the hollow roar of the mountain brook, which swept through the

valley beneath. We then found ourselves approaching nearer and nearer to

some resounding torrent, which went on increasing, till to our amazement

we suddenly perceived amid the keen cool mountain breezes a smoking

cascade of hot water!! (_Tji-olok_, or Sulphur spring). This warm spring,

with a temperature of 113 deg. Fahr., which even at its source forms a

tolerable-sized brook, issues with much spluttering from a trachytic rock

close by the way-side, and rushes, brawling and foaming, down a narrow

defile, overgrown with splendid tree-ferns, and which is crossed by means

of a slight rustic bridge. Scarcely is it possible to conceive a richer

landscape, recalling as it were the primeval days of earth in all the

luxuriance of Nature in the flush of youth, than this forest of

tree-ferns, enveloped in clouds of warm vapour, which rise from this

volcanic spring, close alongside of a clear, cold mountain torrent, which

just here leaps into the same chasm! This hot spring thus early indicates

the presence of volcanic fires, which is further evidenced by a tract of

volcanic debris, over which it is necessary to clamber, and which has been

ejected by the destructive energies of the neighbouring active crater of

Gedeh, from which the subterranean forces usually throw up, not red-hot

lava-streams, but from time to time tremendous stone and mud currents,

which, rushing down the steep flanks of the mountain, overrun and destroy

everything around.