With their host the gentlemen visited his sugarcane and coffee plantations, and there found numbers of native men and women engaged in light work.
The ponies being again ready for the road Mr. Sergeant took leave of his Dutch friend, and during the drive he thoughtfully supplied both Captain Thorne and young Jack with biscuits and lemonade. 'You are not accustomed to our meal hours,' he said.
Just before noon they again halted at a neat little inn kept by a native, and there the 'rice-table' was again discussed. The ponies were there exchanged for others, and during the afternoon much ground was covered.
Ever since leaving Batavia they had been gradually ascending and getting deeper into the real country. Immense peaks began to rise round them, and pointing in a certain direction Mr. Sergeant explained that not very far distant the finest botanical garden in the world was situated.
'It is at a place called Buitenzorg,' he said, 'and the governor-general resides there. The Dutchmen almost worship the spot, and I really do not blame them. Although it is only eight hundred feet above sea level, the climate is cool and healthy. Botanists from all parts of the world visit the gardens, where you may see candles, and even bread, growing in profusion.'
'And perhaps clothes?' Captain Thorne laughingly added.
'Yes; in the same sense that yours grew on sheep,' Mr. Sergeant replied. 'The tappa cloth of the Pacific islanders is made from the inner bark and fine fibres of certain palms, so I may truly say that clothes grow there also. There is a famous avenue of trees there, and thousands of blossoms growing on the trunks instead of on the branches of different trees. I greatly wish we could have gone there this trip. At anyrate, Jack, I shall endeavour to show you something quite as interesting, and assuredly far more ancient.'
That afternoon they reached a certain spot from which a magnificent view was obtainable, and the ponies were brought to a stand. Some thirty miles away, in a southerly direction, the placid and sparkling Java Sea lay spread out below them, small blue clouds here and there dotting the horizon and denoting islands, while toward the south-east mountains rose twelve and thirteen thousand feet. From two of them Jack perceived faint traces of smoke rising.
'Volcanoes, sir!' he cried.
'Yes,' Mr. Sergeant replied, 'and there are many of them throughout the island. I know of four which stand round an immense desert of sand, itself the bottom of an extinct crater, and others near Soerabaya are always active. Eighty years ago one named Papandajan suddenly became active, one side of it was blown out, and four thousand people were instantly destroyed. Thirty years later the island of Sombava, three hundred miles off, was almost obliterated by an earthquake, and only after a violent volcanic eruption did the fearful disturbance cease, and many thousands of natives lost their lives then; the shock was severely felt for one thousand miles round, and vast quantities of lava dust fell on this island. Indeed, although everything looks peaceful now, no one knows when a similar outburst may happen.'