No Musquitoes at Anger--The Land of the East--A Sketch--
Advantages of Anger--Dolce-far-Niente--Island of Java--
Batavia--Bantam--Comparison between Anger and Singapore.
A peculiarity about Anger is, that there are no musquitoes there, and
very few of the noxious vermin that destroy the romance of tropical
climes. It does very well in poetry, to pen, in pretty phrase, the query
of your acquaintance with the
"Land of the orange and myrtle;"
but they are more than _poetically_ "emblems of _deeds_ that are done in
their clime," and gastric derangement from the former fruit, with
cutaneous affections from the sweet-scented vine, are not the only
proofs of a change in the properties of the Garden of Eden. "Latet
anguis in herba," of the most inviting natural lawn, and of its gayest
flowers, truly has the poet said, "the trail of the serpent is over them
all." The East is called the "land of the sun," and justly too, for he
reigns supreme there, and if you defy his power, soon brings you to your
senses, or rather deprives you of them, by a _coup de soleil_. Evading
his beams you seek the covert of a grateful shade, where the spreading
palm, with parasol-like leaves, forms romantic shelter, the cocoa-nut
in its triple cluster hanging invitingly in its crotch; away high up
upon its straight and graceful stem, birds of magnificent plumage are
flitting from tree to tree, making the grove vocal with their notes;
monkeys, mischievous, but not considered dangerous, dance overhead upon
the boughs, and with comic antics provoke a smile. With gentle breezes
wafting perfumes such as Gouraud never was gladdened with in his most
happy ambrosial dreams, and glimpses of the blue sky, seen partially
through the waving foliage, which gently moves with a composing sound,
reminding you that "Heaven is above all," you close your eyes, about to
sink into the arms of the "twin sister" of that mysterious deity, who
bears you thither, when--wiss-s-rattle, crack--down comes a cocoa-nut,
denting the ground within two inches from whence you had just jerked
your happy head, which had it hit would have transferred you from the
arms of one "twin" to the other; and a malicious monkey scampers off
chattering and grinning, as if he had performed a feat worthy of his
prototype--man!
"Oh know you the land of the orange and myrtle?" where the Thug crawls
cautiously with his strangling cord, and the tiger welcomes you with his
feline fangs!
But Anger--please pronounce it softly, as if written thus, Anjeer--Anger
is not so bad as described in the foregoing sketch; as I have stated,
there are no musquitoes there, and you are not much troubled with those
bumping, buzzing bugs, who "put out the light, and then put out _their_
light." Lizards crawl over the walls and ceilings, but they are
harmless, and catch flies. I do not know how it is, and it may be
thought a strange taste, but I rather affection the lizard. His frugal
habits, his unobtrusive manners, and that cunning blink of his bright
black eyes, have taken away that aversion which is a natural sentiment
towards that species of animals "which crawl upon the belly;" and upon
the whole, must confess I consider him, despite his ugly tail, a very
proper _domestic_ animal; more so than many other gluttonous pets.
Tigers, it is true, are said to prowl about at night, seeking something
to devour, but I never encountered one, else I might not have been here
to write about them. Crocodiles infest the stream that winds around and
about the Malay houses. But they do not appear to hold them in dread,
for I have seen men, women, children and crocodiles in the same water,
and at the same time. That they, the crocodiles, are not converts to
Malthus, is pretty apparent, from the number of _tender_ infants they
permit to be added to the census of the Malay population.
Upon the whole, there was something about Anger peculiarly pleasing
to me; whether that it had been the "first of Eastern lands" I had
trodden upon, or there could have been any thing conducive to the
"dolce-far-niente" feeling in its atmosphere, but I felt as if I
could have laid back and smoked segars in Mynheer's porch for the
remainder of my days--
"The world forgetting, by the world forgot."
Don't know how long the feeling would have lasted had I indulged it _ad
libitum_; but I certainly did enjoy the few hours passed there in a
kind of dreamy abstraction, which approached the pleasure of the
opium-eater's reverie.
The Island of Java, sometimes called "Great," on account of Balie having
once been called by the same name, is nearly five hundred miles in
length, and a place of considerable importance in the commercial world;
that part of it occupied by the Dutch, producing coffee, rice, and
"straits produce." Batavia, the principal settlement, is a city of
considerable importance, only about sixty miles by land from Anger, a
communication being kept up by post between the two places. It is
described as a very populous and beautiful city, but of a climate, at
certain seasons, deadly to Europeans. The Governor-General of the Dutch
possessions in the East Indies, resides at Batavia, and it is the dépôt
of the Dutch trade. It is well known that the English possessed
themselves of this place after the provinces had declared war against
Great Britain, and lost more men during its short occupancy, by disease,
than by the casualties of war. Bantam is also neighboring to Anger, with
which a post route is also kept up; it was once a place of considerable
importance, but has fallen into decay, Batavia obtaining its trade, and
rising upon its ruins.
Anger itself, from its advantageous position in the Straits of Sunda,
with an enterprising population, might become a place of considerable
importance, and rival in time its neighbor, Sincapore, in the Straits of
Malacca. It is now the stopping place for nearly every vessel passing
through these Straits for water and provisions, and there is nothing to
prevent its becoming an emporium for the products of this fertile
Island, excepting the short-sighted policy of the Dutch, who wishing to
centre all the trade at Batavia, force the merchantmen to a sickly city
for the pepper, coffee, rice, &c., raised upon it. Nothing is allowed to
be exported from Anger, and when we wished to procure some coffee for
use on board ship, found it only could be obtained in an underhand
manner. If the English when they took possession of the island, had but
made a settlement and retained this point, they would have found it
greatly to their advantage, even more profitable than Sincapore.