The merchants go to the city about nine, take tiffin at their counting-houses at twelve, return to the country about four, and dine between six and seven. As soon as the lights appear on the table, it is the signal for the sport of myriads of moschetoes and midges. Boots are then indispensable, unless the feet and ankles are otherwise well covered; when the knife and fork do not claim the attention, your hands are industriously employed in driving off these eternal pests from the exposed parts of the body.
The hospitality of the English, Scotch, and Americans, is proverbial, and they live upon the most amicable terms; there is none of that petty jealousy, and bad feeling, which is seen to exist among rival houses, in many other places.
The custom-house stands on the brink of the great canal, which leads into the bay, and where it once terminated, it probably extends now three quarters of a mile beyond it, to the barrier or break-water, which has lately been erected at its entrance; it is extremely shallow, suitable only for very small craft, and as it is constantly filling up by accumulations of filth from the city, and by mud and sand thrown in by the sea-breeze, it is probable it will within a few years, extend as far again into the bay. As a baneful monopolizing spirit seems to pervade this government in almost every particular, even the poor fishermen are not exempt, who labour continually in a broiling sun, or a deluge of rain, following their vocation far at sea. Their fish are sold at public auction at two o’clock every afternoon, so that the government may take their share of the “fishes” which fall to their lot; the “loaves” are obtained from the poor cultivators of the soil. The retailers, mostly Chinese, buy and hawk them about in baskets every where, at a very considerably advanced price.
The criminals repairing and extending the canal, may be hourly seen in the water, among caymans or huge alligators, and are said never to have been molested by them, but in one instance, while a white man is certain to be seized at once. If the alligator show a decided preference for the whites, the buffaloes throughout India show a very strong aversion to them, and either attack them or run from them in dismay; yet the smallest Indian boy has them under complete control.
The buffaloes, on the great western prairies in the United States, show the same aversion to the whites, or probably to all hunters, and, whenever they see them, they fly in great terror; the hunters, therefore, always go to leeward of the herd.
BURYING-GROUNDS.
The Chinese burying-grounds occupy a vast extent of land in the suburbs; I may say, with truth, of many miles. Near one of them is an old temple, in which are deposited, probably, fifteen or twenty idols, principally made of granite, dug up at various times, on the island. They are said to be of Javanese origin, but they must have been brought thither by Bramins in bygone days. The Chinese worship them, as they do every thing else that bears the remotest appearance to “the human face divine,” or any of the hideous images representing the demon of mischief—any thing, but the one, great, invisible Being. The public archives are kept in the extensive building, called the palace, at Weltevoredem.
The governor does not occupy this building, when in town, but a much smaller one, on the street of which the “Genootschap,” or academy of arts and sciences occupies one part, in the building kept for public parties, called the “Harmonic.”
The palace is a noble building, and kept in good order. In the audience hall are about forty pictures, of the Dutch governor-generals of Netherlands’ India. Some of them are dressed in very quaint costume, and if their countenances are faithfully represented, I must say, no man would willingly change faces with the greater part of them. There are a few, however, of noble and manly features, who have nothing savouring of the “thumbscrew” in their countenances. Generally, the paintings are bad—some four or five are very valuable. A full-length portrait of his present majesty is placed at the head of the room.
The wages paid to servants have nearly doubled within a few years; the present rate is from six to twelve guilders (equal to two dollars, forty cents, or four dollars, eighty cents) per month, out of which they furnish their provisions in part, which consist principally of rice, it being a very cheap article in Java. Considering that each servant attends to but one piece of duty—that one bujong attends to the cutting of grass only, for two horses, which occupies but a small part of the day, and that the larger portion of the time of the almost innumerable servants is spent in idleness, labour is excessively high, compared with that of any other country, even the dearest parts of the United States. The house-servants, with few exceptions, are Malays, who speak no English.