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 fête 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