The duties on imports and exports for that year in the islands of Java and Madura alone amounted to 7,440,579 guilders, or £620,048.
N.B. The picul of 125 lbs. = 136 lbs. 10 ounces avoirdupois.
[62] Since this was written a number of the Dutch officials and savans at Java, who showed so many civilities to the Austrian travellers, were decorated by our Government with Austrian orders, among whom was also the Raden Adipata Wira Nata Kusuma, the first native Javanese Regent ever decorated by a foreign power. The prince was extremely delighted when he was informed of it, and said he longed for the hour when the imperial decoration was to arrive that he might put it on and wear it. Singularly enough the presents and letters of acknowledgment sent to the Dutch Government in the Hague for remittance, were not forwarded direct by the mail steamer, but as customary by sailing vessels, so that they only arrived six months after they were presented!
[63] A genuine Javanese musical instrument, consisting of a number of bells all differently tuned, which are struck with two small bamboo-sticks.
[64] Die Republic Costa Rica, in Central-America, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Naturverhältnisse, und der frage der deutschen Answanderung und Colonisation. Reisestudien und Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1853 und 1854. Von Dr. M. Wagner and Dr. Karl Scherzer. Leipzig, Arnold'sche Buchhandlung. 1856. S. 196-197.
[65] Colonel Von Schierbrand, to whom natural science is already under deep obligations for acquiring a variety of valuable objects, is constantly and indefatigably endeavouring, both as a friend of knowledge and a zealous sportsman, to procure, sometimes by personal exertion, sometimes by employing natives engaged at his own expense, a series of rare geological specimens. He appears to be, like so many other of our excellent friends in Java, a living contradiction to the proverb, "Out of sight, out of mind," as he has since the return of the Expedition already sent over as presents to the museums of our native country, valuable selections of curious objects of natural history from the Indian Archipelago.
[66] The Loar-Badang (Public Market) is an immense building, a sort of brothel on a large scale, kept by a Frenchman, who pays a handsome annual sum to Government for the privilege of his infamous traffic. Here, among others, are some 40 or 50 wretched outcasts, whom he sends off in boats every evening to the merchantmen in the port, for the accommodation of their crews!!!
[67] According to official return, the number of criminals, in the year 1857, convicted in the islands of Java and Madura, was 3864, of whom 198 were females and 955 were sentenced to the chain-gang. In the year 1857 alone, 2525 coloured criminals were sentenced to hard labour, with or without chains. The number of convictions in the Dutch East Indies, exclusive of Java and Madura, amounted in the same year to 4430.
[68] Thus the "Prima donna" receives for tragic opera 1500 guilders (£125), and for comic opera 1800 guilders (£150) per month during the season. The "troupe" is usually engaged for a year and a half or two years together.
[69] Of these we cannot refrain from mentioning Dr. Van den Broek, who shortly before our arrival had returned from Japan, where he had resided seven years as physician and Government agent. Dr. Van den Broek, who is at present engaged in the editing a dictionary of the Dutch and Japanese languages, presented us with a botanical work in Japanese with numerous woodcuts, and at the same time was so exceedingly kind as to present us with a small vocabulary of the Court and the popular dialects used in Japan.