"You may think," Fred added, "that I have taken a good deal of space for describing this fruit, but I assure you I have not occupied half what it deserves. And if you were here you would agree with me, and be willing to give it all the space at your command—in and beyond your mouth. But be careful and have it fully ripe; green mangosteens are apt to produce colic, as Frank can tell you of his own knowledge."
VERANDA OF THE HOTEL BELLEVUE.
The train reached Buitenzorg, and deposited our three travellers at the station. They had been recommended to the Hotel Bellevue, and were soon whirling along the road to that establishment. It proved a sort of pocket edition of the hotel at Batavia, as it was scattered over a considerable area; and they had to go out-of-doors to pass from their rooms to the dining-hall, but they found it had a delightful situation, as it was on the slope of a hill overlooking a thickly-wooded valley.
VIEW FROM THE VERANDA AT BUITENZORG.
In describing the scene from the veranda in front of his rooms, Frank wrote as follows:
"Our vision sweeps an area of several miles, beginning with a valley, and ending with a high mountain that was once an active volcano. There are all the tropical trees imaginable in the valley before me. Without changing my position in my chair, I can see cocoa-palms with their clusters of fruit, betel-palms with tufts of green at the ends of tall trunks like flag-staffs, banana, bread-fruit, plantain, mangosteen, durian, and many other kinds of trees whose names I have not yet learned. It is the richest tropical scene that has yet come under my eyes.