o ^ ^^^ ^o* "^ /X* >* ..i-;^-, -^ •^0* ,-0 " " " -r "^O a'^ . • ' " ^. 't.o^ 'oK '^0' ^. ?: r * ^Iffefi SAVED BY GRASPING A FERt Se« p. 430. J TRAVELS i ■K ■ EAST IKDIAI^ ARCHIPELAGO. BY ALBEET S. BICKMOEE, M. A., CORKESPONDIKG MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN AND LONDON ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, NEW-TORK LYCEUM OP NATURAL HISTORY, MEMBER OP THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY AND AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, AND '* PROFESSOR OP NATURAL HISTORY IN MADISON UTSriVERSITY, HAMILTON, N. Y. > \J NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET. 1869. (1 / Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by ALBERT S. BICKMOKE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Maine. > ■^ TO THE GENEROUS FRIENDS OF SCIENCE IN BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE, THROUGH WHOSE LIBERALITY THE TRAVELS HEREIN DESCRIBED WERE MADE, THIS VOLUME £s aaesjiectfuUi? HcHicatcH. PEEFAOE. The object of my voyage to Amboina was simply to re-collect tlie shells figured in Rjimpliius's " Rari- teit Kamer " and the idea of writing a volume of travels was not seriously entertained until I arrived at Batavia, and, instead of being forbidden by tlie Dutcli Government to proceed to tlie Spice Islands, as some of my warmest Mends feared, I was honored by His Excellency, the Governor-General of " the Netherlands India," with the order given on page 40. Having fully accomplished that object, I availed myself of the unexampled facilities to travel af- forded me in every part of the archipelago, and all except the first six chapters describe the regions thus visited. The narrative given has been taken almost en- tirely from my journal, which was kept day by day with scrupulous care. Accuracy, even at any sacri- 6 PREFACE. fice of elegance, lias been aimed at throughout ; and fii'st impressions are presented as modified hj subse- quent observation. My sincerest thanks are herein expressed to the liberal gentlemen to whom this volume is dedicated ; to Baron Sloet van de Beele, formerly Governor- General of the Netherlands India ; to Mr. ^N". A. T. Aniens, formerly Governor of the Moluccas ; to Mr. J. F. B,. S. van den Bosche, formerly Governor of the West Coast of Sumatra ; to the many officers of the Netherlands Government, and to the Dutch and American merchants who entertained me with the most cordial hospitality, and aided me in every pos- sible way throughout the East Indian Archipelago. Oambeidge, Mass., U. S. A., Sept. 1, 1868. CONTEITTS. CHAPTER I. THE STRAIT OF STJNDA AND BATAVIA. Object of the Travels described in this volume — Nearing the coast of Java- Balmy breezes of the Eastern Isles — ^King bolus's favorite seat — A veil of rain — First view of Malays — Entering the Java Sea — The Malay language- Early history of Java — Marco Polo^Hinduism in Java — History of Bata- via — The roadstead of Batavia — The city of Batavia — Houses of Europeans — Mode of cooking — Characteristics of the Malays — Collecting butterflies — Visit Rahden Saleh — Attacked av ith a fever — receive a letter from the Gov- ernor-General 13-41 CHAPTER II. SAMARANG AND SURABAYA. Sail from Batavia for the Moluccas — My companions — Mount Slamat — The north coast of Java — Mount Prahu — Temples at Boro Bodo and Bramba- nan — Samarang — Mohammedan mosque — History of Mohammedanism — Mount Japara— The Guevo Upas, or Valley of Poison— Gresik— Novel mode of navigating mud-flats — Surabaya — Government dock-yard and ma- chine-shops—Zoological gardens — History of Hinduism— The Klings— Ex- cursion to a sugar plantation — Roads and telegraphic routes in Java — Malay mode of gathering rice — The kinds of sugar-cane . . 42-70 CHAPTER III. THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF THE TROPICAL EAST. Leave Surabaya for Macassar — Madura — The Sapi — Manufacture of salt — The Tenger Mountains — The Sandy Sea— Eruptions of Mount Papandayang and Mount Galunggong — Java and Cuba compared — The forests of Java — Fauna of Java— The cocoa-nut palm— The Pandanus— The banana— Tropical fruits — The mangostin — The rambutan — mango— duku — durian — bread-fruit — CONTENTS. Bali — Javanese traditions — Limit between the fauna of Asia and that of Australia — A plateau beneath the sea — Caste and suttee practices on Bali '71-96 CHAPTER IV. CELEBES AND TIMUE. History of Celebes — De Barros — Diogo de Cauto — Head-hunters of Celeoes — The harbor of Macassar — ^Voyages of the Bugis — Skilful diving — ^Fort Rot- terdam — The Societeit, or Club — ^A drive into the country — The tomb of a native merchant — Tombs of ancient princes — Sail for Kupang, in Timiir — Flying-fish — The Gunong Api in Sapi Strait — Gillibanta — Sumbawa — Erup- tion of Mount Tomboro — The Eye of the Devil — ^Tloris and Sandal-wood Island — Kupang — Fruits on Timur — Its barrenness and the cause of it — Difiereut kinds of people seen at Kupang — Human sacrifice — ^Purchas- ing shells — Geology of the vicinity of Kupang — Sail for Dilli — ^Village of Dilli — Islands north of Timur — The Bandas — Monsoons in the Java and China Seas 97-129 CHAPTER V. Description of the island and city of Amboina — Dutch mode of governing the natives — A pleasant home — A living nautilus is secured — Excursion to Hitu — Hassar steering — History of the cocoa-tree — Indian corn — Hunting in the tropics — Butterflies — Excursion along the shores of Hitu for shells — Mode of travelling in the Spice Islands — The pine-apple — Covered bridges — Hitulama — ^Purchasing specimens — History of the Spice Islands — Enormous hermit-crabs — ^An exodus — Assilulu — Babirusa shells from Burn — Great curiosities — Jewels in the brains of snakes and wild boars — Description of the clove-tree — History of the clove-trade — ^Watched by the rajah's wives — Lariki and Wakasihu — A storm in the height of the southeast monsoon — Variety of native dialects — Dangerous voyage by night — An earthquake — Excursion to Tulahu ISO-lVG CHAPTER VI. THE ULIASSERS AND CEEAM. The arrival of the mail at Amboina — The Uliassers — Chewing the betel-nut and siri — Haruku — ^We strike on a reef— Saparua Island, village, and bay — Nusalaut — Strange reception — An Eastern banquet — Examining the native schools — Different classes of natives — ^Yield of cloves in the Uliassers — Nul- lahia, Amet, and Abobo — Breaking of the surf on the coral reefs — Tanjong — Travel by night — Ceram — Elpaputi Bay and Amahai — Alfura, or head- CONTENTS. 9 hunters, come down from the mountains and dance before us — ^Land on the south coast of Ceram — Fiendish revels of the natives — Return to Saparua andAmboina 17Y-212 CHAPTER YII. Governor Arriens invites me to accompany him to Banda — The Gunong Api — Road of the Bandas — Banda Neira and its forts — Geology of Lontar — The Bandas and the crater in the Tenger Mountains compared — The groves of nutmeg-trees — The canari-tree — Orang Datang — We ascend the volcano — In imminent peril — The crater — Perilous descent — Eruptions of Gunong Api — Earthquakes at Neira — Great extent of the Residency of Banda — The Ki andArru Islands — Return to Amboina — Geology of the island of Amboi- na — Trade of Amboina — The grave of Rumphius — His history . 213-252 CHAPTER VIII. Adieu to Amboina — North coast of Ceram — ^Wahai — Burn — Kayeli — Excur- sions to various parts of the bay — ^A home in the forest — Malay cuisine — Tobacco and maize — Flocks of parrots — Beautiful birds — History of Burn — The religion and laws of the Alfura — Shaving the head of a young child — A wedding-feast — Marriage laws in Mohammedan countries — A Malay mar- riage — Opium, its effects and its history — Kayu-puti oil — Gardens beneath the sea — Roban — Skinning birds — Tropical pests — ^A deer-hunt — Binding — A threatening fleet — ^A page of romance — ^A last glance at Buru 253-297 CHAPTER IX. TERNATE, TIDORE, AND GILOLO. Seasons in Ceram and Buru — Bachian and Makian — Eruptions of Ternate — Ma- gellan — Former monopolies — The bloodhounds of Gilolo — Migrations — A birth-mark — The Molucca Passage — ^Malay pirates — They challenge the Dutch 298-322 CHAPTER 5. THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF CELEBES. Mount Klabat — Kema — A hunt for babirusa — A camp by the sea — Enormous snakes — From Kema to Menado — Eruption of Mount Kemaas — Population of the Minahassa — Thrown from a horse — The Bantiks — A living death — ■ History of the coffee-tree — In the jaws of a crocodile — The bay of Menado — Lake Linu — A grove by moonlight 323-355 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE MINAHASSA. The waterfall of Tinchep — A mud-well — A boiling pool — The aucient appear- ance of our earth — Lake Tondano — One of the finest views in the world — Palm-wine — Graves of the natives — Christianity and education — Tanjong Fiasco — Gold-mines in Celebes — The island of Buton — Macassar — A raving maniac 356-383 CHAPTER XII. SUMATRA. Padang — Beautiful drives — Crossing the streams — The cleft — Crescent-shaped roofs— Distending the lobe of the ear — Canons — The great crater of Manin- dyu — ^Immense amphitheatres — Ophir — Gold-mines . . . 384-405 CHAPTER XIII. TO THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS. Valley of Bondyol — ^Monkeys — The orang-utan — Lubu Sikeping — Tigers and buffaloes — The Valley of Ran — ^A Batta grave — Riding along the edge of a precipice — Twilight and evening — Padang Si dempuan-^ Among the canni- bals — Descent from the Barizan — The suspension bridge of rattan — Orna- ments of gold — The camphor-tree . . . . . . 407-434 CHAPTER XIV. RETURN TO PADANG Bay of Tapanuli — The Devil's Dwelling — Dangerous fording — Among the Bat- tas — Missionaries and their brides — The feasts of the cannibals — The pep- per trade — The English appear in the East — Struck by a heavy squall — Ayar Bangis and Natal — The king's birthday — Malay ideas of greatness 435-457 CHAPTER XV. THE PADANG PLATEAU. Thunder and lightning in the tropics — Paya Kombo and the Bua Valley — The Bua cave — Up the valley to Suka Rajah — Ancient capitals of Menangkabau — The reformers of Korinchi — Malay mode of making matchlocks — ^A simple meal — Geological history of the plateau — The Thirteen Confederate Towns — The ilanks of the Merapi — Natives of the Pagi Islands — ^Where the basin of the Indian Ocean begins . ...... 458-485 CONTENTS. 11 * CHAPTER XVI. CROSSING SUMATRA. Bay of Bencoolen — Rat Island — Loss of Governor Raffles's collection — A trap for tigers — Blood-suckers — Pits for the rhinoceros — virgin children — Pla- teau of the Musi — From Kopaiyong to Kaban Agong — Natives destroyed by tigers — Sumatra's wealth — The Anak gadis — Troops of monkeys — From Tebing Tingi to Bunga Mas — We come upon an elephant — Among tigers — The Pasuma people — Horseback travel over — The land of game 486-520 CHAPTER XVII. PALEMBANG, BANCA, AND SINGAPORE. Mount Dempo — Rafts of cocoa-nuts — Floating down the Limatang — Cotton — From Purgatory to Paradise — ^Palembang — The Kubus — Banca — Pre- sented with a python — The python escapes — A struggle for life — Sail for China 521-542 Appendix A. Area of the principal islands, according to Baron van Carnbee 543 " B. Population of the Netherlands India, 1865 . . . 544 " C. A table of heights of the principal mountains in the archi- pelago 544 " D. Coffee sold by the government at Padang .... 545 " E. Tradeof Java and Madura during 1864 . . . .546 Indes 547 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. SAVED BY GRASPING A FEEN, .... WIVES OF ONE OF THE HIGHEST PRINCES IN JAVA, POULTRY-VENDER, GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, BATAVIA, JAVANESE AND FAMILY, RAHDEN SALEH, RAHDEN SALEH' S PALACE, . WATERING THE STREETS, JAVA, AKLING, A TANDU, . . . THE SAPI, OR OX OF MADURA, BAMBOO, FRUIT-MARKET, JAVA, A CHINESE TOMB, . BETEL-NUT PALM, MALAY BELLES, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE JAVANESE, A DYAK OR HEAD-HUNTER OF BORNEO, LANDING THROUGH THE SUKF, CERAM, THE LONTAE PALM, .... MALAY OPIUM-SMOKER, A TROPICAL JUNGLE, THE GOMUTI PALM, .... APPROACH TO THE CLOVE, NEAR PADANG, WOMAN OF THE PADANG PLATEAU, RIDING ALONG THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE, SUSPENSION BRIDGE OF RATTAN, NATIVE OF THE ISLAND OF NIAS, NATIVE OF BILUCHISTAN, . SCENE IN THE INTERIOR OF SUMATRA, NATIVES OF THE PAGI ISLANDS, . RIVER SCENE, SUMATRA, . WOMEN OF PALEMBANG, PALEMBANG AT HIGH WATER, . SINGAPORE, .... KILLING THE PYTHON, . Frontispiece. . PAGE 26 " 27 " 30 " 34 131 180 183 190 200 208 222 281 281 3TO 419 428 445 448 462 580 530 636 541 TRAVELS EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO CHAPTER I. THE STEAIT OF SUNDA AND BATAVIA. On the 19 til of April, 1865, I was fifty miles east of Cliristnias Island, floating on tlie good stip " Mem- non " toward the Strait of Smida. I was going to Batavia, to sail thence to the Spice Islands, which lie east of Celebes, for the purpose of collecting the beautiful shells of those seas. I had chosen that in preference to any other part of the world, because the first collection of shells from the East that was ever described and figured with sufficient accuracy to be of any scientific value was made by Rumphius, a doctor who lived many years at Amboina, the capital of those islands. His great work, the " Rariteit Kamer," or Chamber of Curiosities, was published in 1705, more than sixty years before the twelfth edition of the " Systema Na- turae " was issued by Linnaeus, " the Father of Natural History," who referred to the figures in that work 14 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. to illustrate a part of Ms own writings. When Hol- land became a province of France, in 1811, and it was desig^ned to make Paris the centre of science and lit- eratnre in Europe, it is said that this collection was taken from Leyden to that city, and afterward re- turned, and that during these two transfers a large proportion of the specimens disappeared ; and that, finally, what was left of this valuable collection was scattered through the great museum at Ley den. It was partly to restore Eumphius's specimens, and partly to bring into our own country such a standard collection, that I was going to search myself for the shells figured in the " Rariteit Kamer," on the very points and headlands, and in the very bays, where Rum]3hius's specimens were found. As we neared the coast of Java, cocoa-nuts and fragments of sea- washed palms, drifting by, indicated our approach to a land very different at least from the temperate shores we had left behin.d; and we could in some degree experience Columbus's pleasure, when he first saw the new branch and its vermilion berries. Strange, indeed, must be this land to which we are coming, for here we see snakes swimming on the water, and occasionally fi'agments of rock drifting over the sea. New birds also appear, now sailing singly through the sky, and now hovering in flocks over certain places, hoping to satisfy their hungry maws on the small fishes that follow the fioating drift- wood. Here it must be that the old Dutch sailors fabled could be seen the tree — ^then unknown — ^that bore that strange fruit, the double cocoa-nut. They always represented it as rising up from a great depth BALMY BREEZES OF THE EASTERN ISLES, 15 and spreading out its uppermost leaves on the surface of tlie sea. It was guarded by a "bird, that was not bird but half beast ; and when a ship came near, she was always drawn irresistibly toward this spot, and not one of her ill-fated crew ever escaped the beak and formidable talons of this insatiable harpy. But such wonders unfortunately fade away before the light of advancing knowledge ; and the prince of Ceylon, who is said to have given a whole vessel laden with spice for a single specimen, could have satisfied his heart's fullest desire if he had only kno^vn it was not rare on the Seychelles, north of Mauri- tius. The trades soon became light and bafiling. Heavy rain- squalls, with thunder and lightning, were fre- quent ; and three days after, as one of these cleared away, the high mountain near Java Head appeared full a quarter of a degree above the horizon, its black shoulders rising out of a beautiful mantle of the ermine- white, fleecy clouds, called cumuli. Although we were thirty-five miles from the shore, yet large numbers of dragon-flies came round the shij), and I quickly im|)rovised a net and captured a goodly number of them. After sunset, there was a light air off-shore, which carried us to within a few miles of the land, and at midnight the captain called me on deck to enjoy " the balmy breezes of the Eastern isles ; " and cer- tainly to myself, as well as to the others, the air seemed to have the rich fragrance of new-mown clover, but far more spicy. At that hour it was quite clear, but at sunrise a thick haze rose up from the ocean, 16 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. and this plienomenon was repeated eacL. morning that we were trying to enter the Strait of Sunda. As we had arrived during the changing of the monsoons, calms were so continuous that for six days we tried in vain to gain fifty miles. When a breeze would take us up near the mouth of the channel, it would then die away and let a strong current sweep ns away to the east, and one time we were carried most un]3leasantly near the high, threatening crags at Pa- lembang Point, near Java Head. Those who have passed Sunda at this time of the year, or Ombay Strait in the beginning of the opposite monsoon, mil readily recall the many weary hours they have passed waiting for a favorable breeze to take them only a few miles farther on their long voyage. During those six days, at noon the sun poured down his hottest rays, the thermometer ranging from 88° to 90° Fahr. in the shade, and not the slightest air moving to afford a momentary relief. Although con- stantly for a year I was almost under the equator, these six days were the most tedious and oppressive I ever experienced. The mountain back of Java Head seemed to be King Eolus's favorite seat. Clouds would come from every quarter of the heavens and gather round its summit, while the sun was reaching the zenith ; but soon after he began to pass down the western sky, lightnings would be seen darting their forked tongues around the mountain-crest : and then, as if the winds had broken from the grasp of their king, thick cloud- masses would suddenly roll down the mountain-sides, lightnings dart hither and thither, and again and A VEIL OF RAIN. 17 again tlie thunders would crasli aiid roar enougL. to shake the very firmament. We are not alone. Six or eight vessels are also detained here — for this Strait of Sunda is the great gate through which pass out most of the valuable teas and costly silks of China and Japan, and these ships are carrying cotton goods to those lands to ex- change in part for such luxuries. On the evening of the sixth day a more favorable breeze took us slowly up the channel past a group ^^ large rocks, where the unceasing swell of the ocean was breaking, and making them sound in the quiet night like the howl- ing and snarling of some fierce monster set to guard the way and unable to prevent his expected prey from escaping. With the morning came a fine breeze, and, as we sailed up the strait, several small showers passed over the mountains, parallel to the shore, on the Java side ; and once a long cloud rested its ends on two mountains, and unfolded from its dark mass a thin veil of sparkling rain, through which we could see quite distinctly all the outlines gind the bright- green foliage of the valley behind it. . The highly- cultivated lands near the water, and on the lower declivities of the mountains, whose tops were one dense mass of perennial green, made the whole view most enchanting to me ; but our captain (who was a Cape Cod man) declared that the sand-hills on the outer side of Cape Cod were vastly more charm- ing to him. On the shallows, near the shore, the clear sea- water took a beautifal tint of emerald green in the bright sunlight, and here we passed 2 18 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. long lines of cuttle-fisli "bones and parts of mysteri- ous fruits wliere tlie tides met, that were setting in different directions. Nearly all tlie islands in tlie strait are steep, volcanic cones, witli tlieir l)ases beneath tlie sea ; tlie brigM-green foliage on tlieir sides forming an agree- able contrast witli tlie blue ocean at tlieir feet wlien tlie waves roll away before a strong breeze ; but when it is calm, and the water reflects the light, as from a polished mirror, they appear like gigantic emeralds set in a sea of silver. As we approached Angir, where ships bound to and from China frequently stop for fresh provi- sions, we saw, to our great alarm, a steamship ! Was it the pirate Shenandoah, and was our ship to be taken and burnt there, almost at the end of our long voyage ? I must confess that was what we all feared till we came near enough to see the " Stars and Stripes " of the loyal flag of our native land. Here many Malays paddled off in their canoes to sell us fruit. We watch the approach of the first boat with a peculiar, indescribable interest. It con- tains two young men, who row. They are dressed in trousers and jackets of calico, with cotton handker- chiefs tied round their heads. This is the usual dress throughout the archijDelago, except that, in- stead of the trousers or over them, is worn the sarong^ which is a piece of cotton cloth, two yards long by a yard wide, with the two shorter sides sewn together, so as to make a bag open at the top and bottom. The men draw this on over the body, and gather it on the right hip ; the loose part is then twisted, and ENTEEING THE JAVA SEA. 19 tucked under tlie part passing around tlie iDody, so as to form a rude knot. Tkere is a man in tke stern, sitting witli kis feet under kim, steering tke canoe, and at tke same time kelping it onward witk kis paddle. He is dressed in a close-fitting red skirt ? No ! He is not encumbered witk any clotking ex- cept wkat Nature kas provided for kim, save a nar- row clotk about kis loins, tke usual working-costume of tke coolies, or poorer classes. He brings several kinds of bananas, green cocoa-nuts, and tke " pom- pelmus," wkick is a gigantic orange, from six to eigkt inckes in diameter. He seems perfectly kapjDy, and talks witk tke most surprising rapidity. From an occasional word tkat may be kalf Englisk, we suppose, like traders in tke Western world, ke is speaking in no moderate manner of tke value of wkat ke kas to sell. Mount Karang, back of Angii', now comes into view, raising its crest of green foliage to a keigkt of five tkousand feet ; a ligkt breeze takes us round Cape St. Nickolas, tke nortkwest extremity of Java. It is a kigk land, witk skarp ridges coming down to tke water, tkus forming a series of little rocky keadlands, separated by small sandy bays. Tkese, as we sail along, come up, and open to our view witk a most ckarming panoramic effect. Near tke skore a few Malays are seen on tkeir praus^ or large boats, wkile otkers appear in groups on tke beackes, around tkeir canoes, and only now and tken do we catck glimpses of tkeir rude kouses under tke featkery leaves of tke cocoa-nut palm. We are in tke Java Sea. It seems very strange, 20 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. after being j)itc]ied and tossed about constantly for more tlian a liundred days, tlius to feel our sMp glide along so steadily; and after scanning the horizon by tlie hour, day after day, hoping to be able to discern one vessel, and so feel that we had at least one comj)anion on " the wide waste of waters," now to see land on every side, and small boats scat- tered in all directions over the quiet sea. That night we anchored near Babi Island, on a bottom of very soft, sticky clay, largely composed of fragments of shells and coral. A boat came off from the shore, and, as the coxswain could speak a little English, I took my first lesson in Malay, the common lan- guage, or lingua franca^ of the whole archipelago. As it was necessary, at least, that I should be able to talk with these natives if I would live among them, and purchase shells of them, it was my first and most imperative task, on reaching the East, to acquire this language. The Malay sj)oken at Batavia, and at all the Dutch ports and posts in the islands to the east, differs very much from the high or pure Malay spoken in the Menangkabau country, in the interior of Sumatra, north of Padang, whence the Malays originally came : after passing from island to island, they have spread over all Malaysia, that is, the great archipelago between Asia, Australia, and New Guin- ea, Perhaps of all languages in the world, the low or common Malay is the one most readily acquired. It contains no harsh guttm-als or other consonants that are difficult to pronounce. It is soft and musi- cal, and somewhat resembles the Italian in its liquid sounds ; and one who has learned it can never fail EARLY HISTORY OF JAVA. 21 to Ibe cliarmed by tlie nice "blending of vowels and consonants whenever a word is pronounced in Ms presence. The only difficult thing in this language is, that words of widely different meaning sometimes are so similar that, at first, one may be mistaken for another. Every European in all the Netherlands India speaks Malay. It is the only language used in addressing servants ; and all the European children born on these islands learn it from their Malay nurses long before they are able to speak the lan- guage of their parents. Such children generally find it difficult to make the harsh, guttural sounds of the Dutch language, and the Malays themselves are never able to speak it well ; and, for the same reason, Dutchmen seldom speak Malay as correctly as Englishmen and Frenchmen. We are now off the ancient city of Bantam, and we naturally here review the voyages of the earliest European navigators in these seas, and the principal events in the ancient history of this rich island of J ava. The word Java, or, more correctly, " Jawa," is the name of the people who originally lived only in the eastern part of the island, but, in more modern times, they have spread over the whole island, and given it their name. The Chinese claim to have known it in ancient times, and call it Chi-po or Cha-po, which is as near Jawa as their pronuncia- tion of most foreign names at the present day. It was first made known to the Western world by that great traveller, Marco Polo, in his description of the lands he saw or passed while on his voyage 22 TEAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. from CMna to the Persian Gulf, in tlie latter part of tlie tMrteenth. century. He did not see it himself, but only gathered accounts in regard to it from others. He calls it Griaua, and says it produces cloves and nut- megs, though we know now that they were all brought to Java from the Spice Islands, farther to the east. In regard to gold, he says it yielded a quantity " exceeding all calculation and belief." This was also j)robably brought from other islands, chiefly from Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes. In 1493, one year after the discovery of America by Columbus, Bartholomew Dias, a Portuguese, dis- covered the southern extremity of Africa, which he called the Cape of Storms, but which his king said should be named the Cape of Good Hope, because it gave a good liope that, at last, they had discovered a way to India by sea. Accordingly, the next year, this king * sent Pedro da Covilham and Alfonso de Payva directly to the east to settle this important question. From Genoa they came to Alexandria in the guise of travelling merchants, thence to Cairo, and down the Red Sea to Aden. Here they sepa- rated — Payva to search for " Prester John," a Chris- tian prince, said to be reigning in Abyssinia over a people of high cultivation ; and Covilham to visit the Indies, it having been arranged that they should meet again at Cairo or Memphis. Payva died before reaching the principal city of Abyssinia, but Covil- ham had a prosj)erous journey to India, where he made drawings of the cities and harbors, especially of Goa and Calicut (Calcutta), and marked their * Yalentyn, " History of the Moluccas." EARLY VOYAGES TO THE EAST. 23 positions on a map given Lim by King Jolin of Portugal. Tlience lie returned along tlie coast of Persia to Cape Guardafui, and continued soutli to Mozambique and " Zofala," where lie ascertained that tliat land joined the Cape of Good Hoj)e, and thus was the first man who li,neio that it was possible to sail from Europe to India. From Zofala he re- turned to Abyssinia, and sent his diary, charts, and drawings to Genoa by some Portuguese merchants who were trading at Memj)his. On receiving this news, King Emanuel, who had succeeded King John, sent out, during the following year, 1495, four ships under Vasco di Gama, who visited Natal and Mozambique ; in 1498 he was at Calcutta, and in 1499 back at Lisbon. In 1509 the Portuguese, under Sequiera, first came into the archipelago. During the next year Alfonso Albuquerque visited Sumatra, and in 1511 took the Malay city Malacca, and established a military j)ost from which he sent out Antonio d'Abreu to search for the Spice Islands. On his way eastward. D'Abreu touched at Agasai (Gresik) on Java. In 1511 the Portuguese visited Bantam, and two years later Alvrin was sent from Malacca with four vessels to bring away a cargo of spices from a ship wrecked on the Java coast while on her way back from the Spice Islands. Ludovico Barthema was the first European who described Java from personal observation. He re- mained on it fourteen days, but his descriptions are questionable in part, for he represents parents as selling their children, to be eaten by their purchasers. 24 TEAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. and himself as quitting the island in haste for fear of being made a meal of. In 1596 the Dutch, under Houtman, first arrived off Bantam, and, finding the native king at war with the Portuguese, readily furnished him with assistance against their rivals, on his offering to give them a place where they could establish themselves and commence purchasing pepper, which at that time was almost the only export. The English, following the example of the Portu- guese and the Dutch, sent out a fleet in 1602, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. These ships touched at Achin, on the western end of Sumatra, and thence sailed to Bantam. In 1610 the Dutch built a fort at a native village called Jacatra, " the work of victory," but which they named Batavia. This was destroyed in 1619, and the first Dutch governor-general, Bolt, decided to rebuild it and remove his settlement from Bantam to that place, which was done on the 4th of March of that year. This was the foundation of the present city of Batavia. The English, who had meantime maintained an establishment at Bantam, withdrew in 1683. In 1811, when Holland became subject to France, the French flag was hoisted at Batavia, but that same year it was captured by the English. On the 19th of August, 1816, they restored it to the Dutch, who have held it uninterruptedly down to the pres- ent time. In glancing at the internal history of Java, we find that, for many centuries previous to a. d. 1250, INTERNAL HISTORY OF JAVA. 25 Hinduism, tliat is, a mixture of Bucldliism and Brah- minism, liad Ibeen tlie prevailing religion. At tliat time an attempt was made to convert the reigning prince to Mohammedanism. This j^roved unsuccess- ful; but so soon afterward did this new religion gain a foothold, and so rapidly did it spread, that in 1475, at the overthrow of the great empire of Maja- pahit, who ruled over the whole of Java and the east- ern parts of Sumatra, a Mohammedan 23rince took the throne. Up to this time the people in the western part of Java, as far east as Cheribon (about Long. 109°), spoke a language called Sundanese, and only the people in the remaining eastern j)art of the island spoke Javanese; but in 1811 nine-tenths of the whole population of Java spoke Javanese, and the Sundanese was already confined to the moun- tainous parts of the south and west, and to a small colony near Bantam. Soon after founding Batavia, the Dutch made an alliance offensive and defensive with the chief prince, who resided near Surakarta. Various chiefs rebelled fi'om time to time against his authority, and the Dutch, in return for the assistance they rendered him, obtained the site of the present city of Samar- ang ; and in this way they continued to increase their area until 1749, when the prince then reigning signed an ofS.cial deed " to abdicate for himself and for his heirs the sovereignty of the country, confer- ring the same on the Dutch East India Company, and leaving them to dispose of it, in future, to any per- son they might think competent to govern it for the benefit of the company and of Java." Seven years 26 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. before tMs time tlie empire liad been nominally di- vided, tlie hereditary j)rince being styled Susunan, or " object of adoration," wliose descendants now re- side at Surakarta, near Solo ; and a second prince, wIlo was styled Sultan, and wliose descendants re- side at Jokyokarta. Eack receives a large annuity from tke Dutck Government, and keeps a great num- ber of servants. Tkeir wives are ckosen from all tke native beauties in tke land, and tke engraving we give from a pkotograpk represents tkose of one of tke kigkest dignitaries in full costume, but barefoot, just as tkey dress tkemselves on festive occasions to dance before tkeir lord and kis assembled guests. Tke next day wken tke sea-breeze came, about one o'clock, we sailed up tkrougk tke many islands of tkis part of tke coast of Java. Tkey are all very low and flat, and covered witk a skort, dense skrub- bery, out of wkick rise tke tall cocoa-nut palm and. tke waringin or Indian iig. Tkis green foliage is only separated from tke sea by a narrow beack of ivory- wkite coral sand, wkick reflects tke brigkt ligkt of tke noonday sun until it becomes positively daz- zling. Wkere tke banks are muddy, mangrove-trees are seen below kigk-water level, kolding on to tke soft eartk witk kundreds of brancking rootlets, as if trying to claim as land wkat really is tke dominion of tke sea. Tkis dense vegetation is one of tke great ckarac- teristics of tkese tropical islands ; and tke constantly varied grouping of tke palms, mangroves, and otker trees, and tke irregular contour and relief of tke skores, ajfford an endless series of exquisite views. POULTRY-VENDER. p. 27. From a phototrraph. THE ROAD OF BATAVIA. 27 As we passed one of tlie outer islands, its trees were quite covered witli kites, gulls, and other sea-birds. The next evening we came to tlie Batavia road, a shallow bay where ships lie at anchor j)artially sheltered from the sea by the many islands scattered about its entrance. The shores of this bay form a low, muddy morass, but high mountains appear in the distance. Through this morass a canal has been cut. Its sides are well walled in, and extend out some dis- tance toward the shipping, on account of the shal- lowness of the water along the shore. At the end of one of these moles, or walls, stands a small white light-house, indicating the way of approaching the city, which cannot be fully seen from the anchorage. When a ship arrives from a foreign port, no one can leave her before she is boarded by an officer from the guardship, a list of her passengers and crew obtained, and it is ascertained that there is no sickness on board. Having observed this regulation, we rowed up the canal to the " boom " or tree, where an officer of the customs looks into every boat that j)asses. This word "boom" came into use, as an officer informed me, when it was the custom to let a tree fall across the canal at night, in order to prevent any boat from landing or going out to the shipping. Here were crowds of Malay boatmen, engaged in gambling, by pitching coins. This seemed also the headquarters of poultry- venders, who were carrying round living fowls, ducks, and geese, whose feet had been tied together and fastened to a stick, so that they had to hang with their heads downward — the very ideal of cruelty. 28 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. Before we could land, we were asked several times in Dutcli, Frencli, and English, to take a car- riage, for cabmen seem to kave tlie same persistent habits in every corner of tke eartk. Meanwkile tlie Malay drivers kept skonting out, " Cretur tuan ! cre- tnr tuan ! " So we took a " cretur," tkat is, a low, covered, four- wheeled carriage, drawn by two minia- ture joonies. Tlie driver sits up on a seat in front, in a neat l:)ajii or jacket of red or scarlet calico, and an enormous hemispherical hat, so gilded or bronzed as to dazzle your eyes when the sun shines. Though these ponies are small, they go at a quick canter, and we were rapidly whirled along between a row of shade-trees to the city gate, almost the only part of the old walls of the city that is now standing. The other parts were torn down by Marshal Daendals, to allow a freer circulation of air. Then we passed through another row of shade-trees, and over a bridge, to the of&ce of the American con- sul, a graduate of Harvard; and, as Cambridge had been my home for four years, we at once considered oui'selves as old friends. Before I left America, Senator Sumner, as chair- man of our Committee on Foreign delations, kindly gave me a note of warm commendation to the repre- sentatives of foreign powers; and Mr. J. G. S. van Breda, the secretary of the Society of Sciences in Hol- land, with whom I had been in correspondence while at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge- gave me a kind note to Baron Sloet van de Beele, the governor-general of the Netherlands India. I imme- diately addressed a note to His Excellency, enclosing BATAVIA. 29 these credentials, and explaining my plan to visit tlie Spice Islands for tlie purpose of collecting tlie sliells figured in RumpMus's " Rariteit Kamer," and express- ing tlie liope that lie would do wliat lie could to aid me in my liumhle attempts to develop more fully tlie natural Mstory of tliat interesting region. Tliese papers our consul kindly forwarded, adding a note en- dorsing tliem himself. As the governor-general administers both the civil and military departments of all the Dutch pos- sessions in the East, I could not expect an immediate reply. I therefore found a quiet place in a Dutch family, with two other boarders who spoke English and could assist me in learning their difficult lan- guage, and, bidding Captain Freeman and the other good officers of the Memnon farewell, took up my abode on shore. Bata^da at present is more properly the name of a district or "residency," than of a city. Formerly it was compact and enclosed by walls, but these were destroyed by Marshal Daendals, in 1811. The for- eigners then moved out and built their residences at various places in the vicinity, and these localities still retain their old Malay names. In this part of the city there are several fine hotels, a large o]3era-house, and a club-house. There are two scientific societies, which publish many valuable papers on the natural history, antiquities, geography, and geology, of all parts of the Netherlands India. These societies have valuable collections in Bata\T.a, and at Buitenzorg there is a large collection of minerals and geological specimens. The " King's Plain " is a very large open 30 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. square, suiTOunded by rows of sliade-trees and tlie resi- dences of the wealthier mercliants. Near this is the " Waterloo Plain." On one of its sides is the larg- est building in Batavia, containing the offices of the various government bureaus, and the " throne-room," where the governor-general receives, in the name of the king, congratulations from the higher officials in that vicinity. The governor-general has a palace near by, but he resides most of the time at Buitenzorg, forty miles in the interior, where the land rises to about a thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the climate is much more temperate. A river, that rises in the mountains to the south, flows through the city and canal, and empties into the bay. Many bridges are thrown over this river and its branches, and beautiful shade-trees are planted along its banks. All the houses in these Eastern lands are low, rarely more than one story, for fear of earthquakes, which, however, occur in this part of the island at long intervals. The walls are of bricks, or fragments of coral rock covered with layers of plaster. The roof is of tiles, or atap, a kind of thatching of palm-leaves. A common plan is, a house part parallel to the street, and behind this, and at right angles to it an L or porch, the whole building being nearly in the form of a cross. In front is a broad veranda, where the inmates sit in the cool evening and receive the calls of their friends. This opens into a front parlor, which, with a few sleeping-rooms, occupies the whole house part. GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, BATAVIA, p. 30. From a photofiraph. EASTERN MODE OF COOKING. 3X Tlie L, when there is one, usually lias only a low wall around it, and a roof resting on pillars. It is there- fore open on three sides to the air, unless shutters are placed between the pillars. This is usually the din- ing-room. Back of the house is a square, open area, enclosed on the remaining three sides hy a row of low, shed-roofed houses. Here are extra bedrooms, servants' quarters, cook-rooms, bath-rooms, and sta- bles. Within this area is usually a well, surrounded with shade-trees. The water from this well is poured 'into a thick urn-shaped vessel of coral rock, and slowly filters through into an earthen pot beneath ; it is then cooled with ice from our own New-Eng- land ponds. Thus the cold of our temperate zone is made to allay the heat of the tropics. Several ship- loads of ice come from Boston to this port every year. At Surabaya and Singapore large quantities are manufactured, but it is as soft as ice in ice-cream. When one is accustomed to drinking ice-water, there is no danger of any ill effect ; but, on returning from the eastern part of the archipelago where they never have ice, to Surabaya, I suffered severely for a time, and, as I believe, from no other cause. In the fre- quent cases of fever in the East it is a luxury, and indeed a medicine, which can only be appreciated by one who has himself endured that indescribable burning. The cook-room, as already noticed, is some dis- tance from the dining-room, but this inconvenience is of little importance in those hot lands. The Malays are the only cooks, and I do not think that cooking as an art is carried to the highest perfection in that 32 TKAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. part of tlie world, tliougli I must add, tliat I sooii became quite partial to many of their dishes, wMch are especially adapted for tliat climate. The kitchen is not provided with stoves or cooking-ranges, as in the Western world, hut on one side of the room there is a raised platform, and on this is a series of small arches, Avhich answer the same purpose. Fires are made in these arches with small pieces of wood, and the food is therefore more commonly fried or boiled, than baked. There is no chimney, and the smoke, after filling the room, finally escapes through a place in the roof which is slightly raised above the parts around it. As I am often questioned about the mode of living in the East, I may add that always once a day, and generally for dinner, rice and curry appear, and to these are added, for dinner, potatoes, fried and boiled ; steak, fried and broiled ; fried bananas (the choicest of all delicacies), various kinds of greens, and many sorts of pickles and sambal^ or vegetables mixed vdth red peppers. The next course is salad, and then are brought on bananas of three or four kinds, at all seasons ; and, at certain times, oranges, pumpelmuses, mangoes, mangostins, and rambutans ; and as this is but such a bill of fare as every man of moderate means expects to pro- vide, the people of the West can see that their friends in the East, as well as themselves, believe in the motto, " Carpe diem." A cigar, or pipe, and a small glass of gin, are generally regarded as indis- pensable things to perfect happiness by my good Dutch friends, and they all seemed to wonder that CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE MALAYS. 33 I could be a traveller and never toucli either. It is generally supposed, in Europe and America, tliat housekeepers here, in the East, have little care or vexation, where every family employs so many ser- vants ; but, on the contrary, their troubles seem to multiply in direct ratio to the number of servants employed. ISTo servant there will do more than one thing. If engaged as a nurse, it is only to care for one child ; if as a groom, it is only to care for one horse, or, at most, one span of horses ; and as all these Malays are bent on doing every thing in the easiest way, it is almost as much trouble to watch them as to do their work. The total population of the Residency of Ba- tavia is 517,762. Of these, 5,576 are Europeans ; 47,570 Chinese ; 463,591 native ; 684 Arabs ; and 341 of other Eastern nations. All the natives are remarkably short in stature, the male sex averaging not more than five feet three inches in height, or four inches less than that of Euro- peans. The face is somewhat lozenge-shaj^ed, the cheek- bones high and prominent, the mouth wide, and the nose short — not flat as in the negroes, or prominent as in Europeans. They are generally of a mild dis- position, except the wild tribes in the mountainous parts of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, Ceram, and a few other large islands. The coast jDeople are invariably hospitable and trustworthy. They are usually quiet, and extremely indolent. They all have an insatiable passion for gambling, which no restrictive or prohibitory laws can eradicate. They are nominally Mohammedans, but have 34 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. none of tlie fanaticism of tliat sect in Arabia. Tliey still retain many of their previous Hindu notions, and tLeir belief may be properly defined as a mix- ture of Hinduism and Mohammedanism. A few are " Christians," that is, they attend the service of the Dutch Church, and do not shave their heads or file their teeth. They are cleanly in their habits, and scores of all ages may be seen in the rivers and canals of every city and village, especially in the morning and evening. The sarong^ their universal dress, is peculiarly fitted for this habit. When they have finished their bath, a dry one is drawn on ovei' the head, and the wet one is slipped off beneath without exposing the person in the least. The females wear the sarong long, and generally twist it tightly round the body, just under the arms. Oc- casionally it is made mth sleeves, like a loose gown. A close-fitting jacket or haju is worn with it. The men have but a few straggling hairs for beards, and these they generally pull out with a pair of iron tweezers. The hair of the head in both sexes is lank, coarse, and worn long. Each sex, therefore, resembles the other so closely that nearly every foreigner will, at first, find himself puzzled in many cases to know whether he is looking at a man or a woman. This want of differentiation in the sexes possibly indicates their low rank in the human family, if the law may be applied here that obtains among most other animals. Every day I went out to collect the peculiar birds and beautiful butterfiies of that region, my favorite place for this pleasure being in an old THE BUFFALO. 35 Cliinese cemetery just outside the city, where, as the land was level, the earth had been thrown up into mounds to keep the bones of their inmates from " the wet unfortunate places," just as in China, when far from any mountain or hill. A Malay servant followed, carrying my ammunition and collecting- boxes. At first I supposed he would have many superstitious objections to wandering to and fro with me over the relics of the Celestials, but, to my surprise, I found his people cultivating the spaces between the graves, as if they, at least, did not con- sider it sacred soil ; yet, several times, when we came to the graves of his own ancestors, he was care- ful to approach with every manifestation of awe and respect. A small piece of land, a bamboo hut, and a buf- falo, comprise all the worldly possessions of most coolies, and yet with these they always seem most enviably contented. They generally use but a single buffalo in their ploughs and carts. A string passing through his nostrils is tied to his horns, and to this is attached another for a rein, by which he is guided or urged to hasten on his slow motions. This useful animal is distributed over all the large islands of the archi- pelago, including the Philippines, over India and Ceylon ; and during the middle ages was intro- duced into Egypt, Greece, and Italy. It thrives well only in warm climates. From its peculiar habit of wallowing in j)ools and mires, and bury- ing itself until only its nose and eyes can be seen, it has been named the " water - ox." This 36 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. appears to Ibe its mode of resting, as well as escap- ing the scorcMng rays of the sun, and the swarms of annoying flies ; and in the higher lands the natives make artificial ponds by the roadside, where these animals may sto]3 when on a jonrney. They are generally of a dark slate-color, and occasionally of a light flesh-color, but rarely or never white. They are so sparsely covered with hair as to be nearly naked. They are larger than our oxen, but less capable of continued labor. They are usually so docile that even the Malay children can drive them, but they dislike the appearance of a European, and" have a 23eculiar mode of mani- festing this aversion by breathing heavily through the nose. At such times they become restive and unmanageable, and their owners have frequently re- quested me to walk away, for fear I should be attacked. When the females are suckling their young, they are specially dangerous. A large male has been found to be more than a match for a full- grown royal tiger. On most of the islands where the tame buffalo is seen, wild ones are also found among the mountains ; but naturalists generally suppose the original home of the species was on the continent, and that the wild ones are merely the descendants of those that have escaped to the forests. The Spaniards found them on the Philippines when tliey first visited that archi- pelago. The plough generally used has both sides alike, and a single handle, which the coolie holds in his right hand while he guides the buffalo with the left. RAHDEN SALEH. From a photograph. RAHDEN SALEH'S PALACE. p. 36. From a photograph. A SPEAKING QUADRUPED. 37 The lower part of tlie share is of iron, the other parts of wood. It only scratches the ground to the depth of six or eight inches — a strange contrast to our deep subsoil ploughing. In these shallow fur- rows are dropped kernels of our own Indian maize and seeds of the sugar-cane. Sometimes the fields are planted with cocoa-nut palms about twenty yards apart, more for their shade, it appears, 'than for their fruit, which is now hanging in great green and yellow clusters, and will be ripe in a month. Beneath these trees are blighted nuts, and in many places large heaps of them are seen, gathered by the natives for the sake of the husk, from which they make a coarse rope. Among these trees I was surprised to hear the noise, or more properly words, " Tokay ! tokay ! " and my servant at once explained that that was the way a kind of lizard " talked " in his land. So snugly do these animals hide away among the green leaves that it was several days before I could satisfy myself that I had secured a specimen of this speak- ing quadruped. During my hunting I enjoyed some charming views of the high, dark-blue mountains to the south. One excursion is worthy of especial mention. It was to the palace of Kahden Saleh, a native prince. This palace consisted of a central part and two wings, with broad verandas on all sides. On entering the main building we found ourselves in a spacious hall, mth a gallery above. In the centre of the fioor rose a sort of table, and around the sides of the room were chairs of an antique pattern. Side-doors opened out 38 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. of tliis hall into smaller rooms, eacli of wliicli was fur- nished witli a straw carpet, and in tlie centre a small, square Brussels carj)et, on wHcli was a table orna-. mented witli carved- work, and surrounded witL. a row of riclily-cusliioned chairs. Along the sides were sim- ilar chairs and small, gilded tables. On the walls hung large steel engravings, among which I noticed two frequently seen in our own land : " The Moham- medan's Paradise," and one of two female figures personifying the past and the future. In front of the palace the grounds were tastefully laid out as small lawns and flower-plats, bordered with a shrub filled with red leaves. An accurate idea of the harmonious proportions of this beautiful palace is given in the accompanying cut. It is the richest residence owned by any native prince in the whole East Indian Ar- chipelago. The Rahden at the time was in the adjoining grounds, which he is now forming into large zoo- logical gardens for the government at Batavia. When a youth, he was sent to Holland, and educated at the expense of the Dutch Government. While there, he acquired a good command of the German and French languages, was received as a distinguished guest at all the courts, and associated with the lead- ing literati. In this manner he became acquainted with Eusrene Sue, who was then at work on his " Wandering Jew," and — as is generally believed — at once chose the Rahden as a model for his " East- • ern prince," one of the most prominent characters in that book. But it is chiefly as a landscape-painter that the Bahden is most famous. A few years ago THE BATAVIA FEVER. 39 tliere was a great flood liere at Batavia'wMcli proved a fit subject for Ms. pencil ; and tlie painting was so gl-eatly admired, that lie presented it to tlie King of Holland. When I was introduced to him, he at once, with all a courtier's art, inquired whether I was from the North or the South ; and on hearing that I Was not only from the North, but had served for a time in the Union army, he insisted on shaking hands again, remarking that he trusted that it would not be long before all the slaves in our land would be free. I had not been out many times collecting before I found myself seized one night with a severe pain in the back of the neck and small of the back — Si sure sign of an approaching fever. The next day found me worse, then I became somewhat better, and then worse again. The sensation was as if some one were repeat- edly thrusting a handful of red-hot knitting-needles into the top of my head, which, as they passed in, di- verged till they touched the base of the brain. Then came chills, and then again those indescribable dart- ing pains. It seemed as if I could not long retain the command of my mind under such severe torture. At last, after seven days of this suffering, I decided to go to the military hospital, which is open to citi- zens of all nations on their paying the same price per day as in the best hotels. The hospital consisted of a series of long, low, one-story buildings placed at right angles to each other, and on both sides facing open squares and wide walks or gardens, which were all bordered with large trees and contained some fine flowers. In each of the buildino^s were two rows of rooms or chambers of convenient size, which 40 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. opened out on to a wide piazza, where the sick could enjoy all the breezes and yet Ibe sheltered from the sun. Every morning the chief doctor came round to each room with assistants and servants, who carefully noted his directions and ^prescriptions. He was a German, and apj)eared very kindly in his manner; but when the time arrived to take medicine, I found he had not only assigned for me huge doses of that most bitter of all bitter things — quinine — ^but also copious draughts of some fluid villanously sour. The ultimate result of these alloj)athic doses was, however, decidedly beneficial ; and after keeping per- fectly quiet for a week, I was well enough to return to my boarding-house, but yet was so weak for some time that I could scarcely walk. Our consul, who had been kindly visiting me all the while, now came with a letter from His Excellency the governor-general that was amply sufiicient to make me wholly forget my unfavorable initiation into tropi- cal life. It was addressed to the " Heads of the Provin- cial Governments in and out of Java," and read thus : " I have the honor to ask Your Excellency to render to the bearer, Mr. Albert S. Bickmore, who may come into the district under your command in the interest of science, all the assistance in your power, without causing a charge to the public funds or a burden to the native people." Besides honoring me with this kind letter, His Excellency generously wrote the consul that he would be happy to offer me "post-horses j^r^^ overall Java," if I should like to travel in the interior. But it was with the hope of reaching the Spice Islands that I PREPARING TO GO FARTHER EAST. 41 liad come to the East, and, after tlianking tlie gov- ernor-general for sucli great consideration and kind- ness, I began making preparations for a voyage tkrougli the eastern part of tlie archipelago. I had brought with me a good supply of large copper cans with screw covers. These were filled with arrack, a kind of rum made of molasses and rice. Dip-nets, hooks, lines, and all such other paraphernalia, I had fully provided myself with before I left America. Yet one paper, besides a ticket, was needed before I could go on board the mail-boat, and that was a " permis- sion to travel in the l^etherlands India." This paper ought to have been renewed, according to law, once every month ; but the governor-general's letter was such an ample passport, that I never troubled myself about the matter again during the year I was jour- neying in the Dutch possessions. CHAPTER II. SAMAEANG AND SUEABATA. Ok" the 7t]i of June, as tlie twiliglit was briglit- ening in the eastern sky, I left my new Batavia liome, and was liurriedly driven to tlie " boom." A small steamer was waiting to take passengers off to tke mail-boat tkat goes to Celebes, Timor, and Am- boina, tke capital of tlie Spice Islands. My baggage all on board, I bad time to rest, and realize tbat once more I was a wanderer ; bnt lone- some tbougbts were qnickly banished when I began to observe wlio were to be my companions, there on the eastern side of the world, so far from the centre of civilization and fashion ; and just then a real ex- quisite stepped on board. He was tall, but appeared much taller from wearing a high fur hat, the most uncomfortable covering for the head imaginable in that hot climate. Then his neckcloth ! It was spot- lessly white, and evidently tied with the greatest care ; but what especially attracted my attention were his long, thin hands, carefully protected by white kid gloves. However, we had not been a long time on the steamer, where every place was covered with a thick layer of coal-dust, before Mr. Exquisite changed his elegant apparel for a matter-of-fact suit, and made THE GIBEALTAR OP JAVA. 4.3 his second appearance as a litterateur^ witli a copy of tlie Gornliill Magacdne. As lie evidently did not intend to read, I borrowed it, and found it was al- ready tliree years old, and tlie leaves still uncut. It contained a graphic description of the grounds about Isaac Walton's retired home — probably the most like the garden of Eden of any place seen on our earth since man's fall. The other passengers were mostly officials and merchants going to Samarang, Surabaya, or Macas- sar, and I found that I was the only one travelling to Amboina. The general commanding the Dutch army in the East was on board. He was a very po- lite, unassuming gentleman, and manifested much interest in a Sharpe's breech-loader I had brought from America, and regarded it the most effective army rifle of any he had seen up to that time. He was going to the headquarters of the army, which is a strongly-fortified place back of Samarang. It was described to me as located on a mountain or high plateau with steej:) sides — a perfect Gibraltar, which they boasted a small army could maintain for an in- definite length of time against any force that might be brought against it. About five months later, however, it was nearly destroyed by a violent earth- quake, but has since been completely rebuilt. One genial acquaintance I soon found in a young man who had just come from Sumatra. He had travelled far among the high mountains and deep gorges in the interior of that almost unexplored island, and his vivid descriptions gave me an inde- scribable longing to behold such magnifi^cent scenery 44 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDLiN ARCHIPELAGO. — a pleasiu'e I did not fancy at tliat time it would Ibe my good fortune to enjoy "before I left tlie arcHpel- ago. All day the sky was very hazy, but we obtained several grand views of high volcanoes, especially two steep cones that can be seen in the west from the road at Batavia, A light, but steady breeze came from the east, for it was as yet only the early part of the eastern monsoon. When the sun sank in the west, the full moon rose in the east, and spread out a broad band of silver over the sea. The air was so soft and balmy, and the whole sky and sea so en- chanting, that to recall it this day seems like fancy- ing anew a part of some fascinating dream. This word monsoon is only a corruption of the Arabic word 'muslm, " season," which the Portu- guese learned from the Arabians and their de- o scendants, who were then navigating these seas. It first occurs in the writings of De Barros, where he speaks of a famine that occurred at Malacca, be- cause the usual quantity of rice had not been brought fr'om Java ; and " the mu§ao " being adverse, it was not possible to obtain a sufficient supply. The Ma- lays have a peculiar manner of always speaking of any region to the west as being " above the wind," and any region to the east as being " below the wind." Ju7ie 8th. — Went on deck early this morning to look at the mountains which we might be passing ; and, while I was absorbed in viewing a fine head- land, the cajDtain asked me if I had seen that gigan- tic peak, pointing upward, as he spoke, to a moun- tain-top, rising out of such high clouds that I liad not THE NORTH COAST OF JAVA. 45 noticed it. It was Mount Slamat, wliicli attains an elevation of eleven thousand three hundred and thirty English feet above the sea — the highest peak but one among the many lofty mountains on Java, and, like most of them, an active volcano. The upper limit of vegetation on it is three thousand feet below its crest. The northern coast of Java is so low here that this mountain, instead of appearing to rise up, as it does, from the interior of the island, seemed close by the shore — an effect which occurs in viewing nearly all these lofty peaks while the observer is sailing on the Java Sea. M. Zollinger, a Swiss, says that at sunrise the tops of these loftiest peaks are brightened with the same rose-red glow that is seen on Monte Rosa and Mont Blanc when the sun is setting, and once or twice I thought I observed the same charming phenomenon. The lowlands and the lower declivities of all the mountains seen to-day are under the highest state of cultivation. Indeed, this part of Java may be correctly described as one mag- nificent garden, divided into small lots by lines of thick evergreens, and tall, feathery palm-trees. This afternoon we steamed into the o|)en roadstead of Sam- arang during a heavy rain-squall ; for though the " western monsoon," or " rainy season," is past, yet nearly every afternoon we have a heavy shower, and every one is speaking of the great damage it is likely to do to the rice and sugar crops which are just now ri]3ening. The heavy rain-squall cleared away the thick haze that filled the sky, and the next morning I went on shore to see the city. A few miles direct- ly back of it rises the sharp peak of Ungarung to a 46 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. lieigM of some five thousand feet, its flanks highly cultivated in fields, and its upper region devoted to coffee- trees. Somewhat west of this, near the shore, I noticed a small naked cone, apparently of brown, volcanic ashes, and of so recent an origin that the vigorous vegetation of these tropical lands had not had time to spread over its surface. Back of Unga- rung rise three lofty peaks in a line northwest and southeast. The northernmost and nearest is Mount Prau ; the central. Mount Sumbing ; and the southern one. Mount Sindoro. Mount Prau receives its name from its shape, which has been fancied to be like that of a " prau," or native boat, turned upside down. It was the supposed residence of the gods and demigods of the Javanese in ancient times, and now it abounds in the ruins of many temples; some partially cov- ered with lava, showing that earthquakes and eruptions have done their share in causing this destruction. Many images of these ancient gods in metal have been found on this mountain. Ru- ins of enormous temples of those olden times are yet to be seen at Boro Bodo, in the province of Kedu, and at Brambanan, in the province of Mata- rem. At Boro Bodo a hill-to|) has been changed into a low pyramid, one hundred feet high, and hav- ing a base of six hundred and twenty feet on a side. Its sides are formed into five terraces, and the perpen- dicular faces of these terraces contain many niches, in each of which was once an image of Buddha. On the level area at the summit of the pyramid is a large dome-shaped building, surrounded by seventy- THE THOUSAND TEMPLES. 47 two smaller ones of tlie same general form. Accord- ing to tlie clironology of tlie Javanese, it was built in A. D. 1344. At Brambanan are seen extensive ruins of several groups of temples, built of buge blocks of trachyte, carefully bewn and put together without any kind of cement. Tbe most wonderful of tliose groups is tliat of " Tbe Thousand Temples." They actually number two hundred and ninety-six, and are situ- ated on a low, rectangular terrace, measuring five hundred and forty by five hundred and ten feet, in five rows, one within another; a large central build- ing, on a second terrace, overlooks the whole. This was elaborately ornamented, and, before it began to decay, probably formed, with those around it, one of the most imposing temples ever reared in all the East. According to the traditions of the Javanese, these buildings were erected between a. d. 1266 and 1296. These structures were doubtless planned and superintended by natives of India. They were dedi- cated to Hindu worship, and here the Brahmins and Buddhists appear to have forgotten their bitter hos- tility, and in some cases to have even worshipped in the same temple. The Indian origin of these works is further proved by images of the zebu, or humped ox, which have been found here and elsewhere in Java, but it does not now exist, and probably never did, in any part of the archipelago. As two Malays rowed me rapidly along in a narrow, canoe-like boat, I watched the clouds gather and embrace the high head of Mount Prau. Only 48 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. thin and fibrous cumuli covered tlie other lofty peaks, but a thick cloud wrapped itself around the crest of this mountain and many small ones gathered on its dark sides, which occasionally could be seen through the partings in its white fleecy shroud. The form of the whole was just that of the mountain, except at its top, where for a time the clouds rose like a gigan- tic, circular castle, the square openings in their dense mass exactly resembling the windows in such thick walls. Eastward of Ungarung are seen the lofty summits of Merbabu and Merapi, and east from the anchorage rises Mount Japara, forming, with the low lands at its feet, almost an island, on Java's north coast. Like Batavia, Samarang is situated on both sides of a small river, in a low morass. The river was much swollen by late rains, and in the short time I passed along it, I saw dead horses, cats, dogs, and monkeys borne on its muddy waters out to the bay, there perhaps to sink and be covered with layers of mud, and, if after long ages those strata should be elevated above the level of the sea and fall under a geologist's eye, to become the subject of some prolix disquisition. This is, in fact, exactly the way that most of the land animals in the marine deposits of former times have come down to us — an extremely frag- mentary history at best, yet sufficient to give us some idea of the strange denizens of the earth when few or none of the highest mountains had yet been formed. Through this low morass they are now digging a canal out to the roads, so that the city may be ap- proached from the anchorage by the canal and the SAMARANG. 49 river. This canal is firmly walled in, as at Batavia. From tlie landing-place to the city proper the road was a stream of mud, and the houses are small and occupied only by Malays and the poorer classes of Chinese. In such streets two coolies are occasionally seen carrying one of the native belles in a tandii. The city itself is more compact than Batavia, and the shops are remarkably fine. It was pleasant to look again on some of the same engravings exposed for sale in our own shops. The finest building in the city, and the best of the kind that I have seen in the East, is a laroje one containino; the custom and other bureaus. It is two stories high, and occupies three sides of a rectangle. I was told that they Avere fifteen years in building it, though in our country a private firm would have put it up in half as many months. There are several very fine hotels, and I saw one most richly famished. Near the river stands a high watch-tower, where a constant lookout is kept for all ships approaching the road. From its top a wide view is obtained over the anchorage, the low- lands, and the city. Toward the interior rich fields are seen stretching away to the province of Kedu, " the garden of Java." A railroad has been begun here, which will extend to Surakarta and Jokyo- karta, on the east side of Mount Merapi, and will open this rich region more fully to the world."^" The church of the city, which is chiefly sustained * The population of tlie Eesidency of Samarang, -whicli includes the city, is 1,020,275. Of these 5,162 are Europeans, 1,001,252 are natives, 11,441 are Chinese, 438 are Arabs, and 1,982 are from other Eastern nations. In these figures the military are not included. 4 50 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. here as elsewhere by the Dutcli GovermiierLt, is a large cathedral-like building, finished in the interior in an octagonal form. One side is occupied by the pulpit, another by the organ, and the others are for the congregation. At the time I entered, the pastor was lecturing in a conversational but earnest manner to some twenty Malays and Chinese, gathered around hiin. At the close of his exhortation he shook hands with each in the most cordial manner. From this church I went to the Mohammedan mosque, a square pagoda-like structure, with three roofs, one above the other, and each being a little smaller than the one beneath it. It was Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, and large numbers were coming to pay their devotions to the false proj)het, for his is the prevailing religion in this land. By the gate in the wall enclosing the mosque were a well and a huge stone tank, where all the faithful per- formed the most scrupulous ablutions before proceed- ing to repeat the required parts of the Koran. It was pleasant to see that at least they believed and practised the maxim that " cleanliness is next to godliness." From the gate I walked up an inclined terrace to the large doorway, and at once saw, from the troubled expression on the faces of those who were kneeling on their straw mats outside the build- ing, that I had committed some impropriety; and one answered my look of inquiry by pointing to my feet. I had forgotten that I was treading on " holy ground," and had therefore neglected " to |)nt off my shoes." Opposite the entrance is usually a niche, and on one side of this a kind of throne, but what MOHAMMEDANISM IN THE AECHIPELAGO. 51 was tlie origin or signification of either I never could learn, and believe tlie common people are as ignorant as myself in tMs respect. Their whole ceremony is to kneel, facing this niche, and repeat in a low, mum- bling, nasal tone some parts of the writings of their prophet. Their priests are always Arabs, or their mestizo descendants, the same class of people as those who introduced this faith. Any one who has been to Mecca is regarded as next to a saint, and many go to Singapore or Penang, where they remain a year or two, and then return and declare they have seen the holy city. The first conversions to Moham- medanism in any -psnt of the archipelago occurred at Achin, the western end of Sumatra, in 1204. It was not taught by j)ure Arabs, but by those descendants of Arabs and Persians who came from the Persian Gulf to Achin to trade. Thence it spread slowly eastward to Java, Celebes, and the Moluccas, and northward to the Philippines, where it was just gain- ing a foothold when the Spanish arrived. Under their rule it was soon eradicated, and supplanted by Catho- lic Christianity. Bali is almost the only island where the people can read and Avrite their native tongue, and have not partially adopted this religion. On the continent it spread so rapidly that, within one hundred years after the Hegira, it was established from Persia to Spain ; but, as its promulgators were not a maritime people, it did not reach Achin until five hundred and seventy-two years after the Hegira, and then its followers had so little of the fanaticism and energy of the Arabs, that it was more than three hundred years in reaching Celebes, and fully estab- 52 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. lisliing itself on tliat island. The Malay name for this religion is always " Islam." On our way back to tlie mail-boat we passed quite a fleet of fisHng-boats, at tlie mouth of tlie river. They are generally made alike at both ends, and look like huge canoes. Some have high lantern- shaped houses perched on the stern, as if to make them more unsightly. Here they all have decks, but those at Batavia are merely open boats. The next day we continued on our course to the eastward, around the ]3romontory formed by Mount Japara, whose sides are so completely scored by deej) ravines that little or none of the original surface of the mountain can be seen. Dr. Junghuhn, who has spent many years studying in detail the mountains of Java, finds that above a height of ten thousand feet but very few ravines exist. This height is the common cloud-level, and the rains that they pour out, of course, only affect the moimtain-sides below that elevation, hence the flanks of a mountain are sometimes deeply scored while its top remains entire. The substances of which these great cones are chiefly comj)osed are mostly volcanic ashes, sand, and small fragments of basalt or lava, just the kind of rnaterials that swift torrents would rapidly carry away. The volcanoes of Java are mostly in two lines : one, commencing near Cape St. Nicholas, its northwestern extremity, passes diagonally across the island to its southeastern headland on the Strait of Bali. The other is parallel to this, and extends from the middle of the Strait of Sunda to the south coast in the longi- tude of Cheribon. They stand along two immense THE VALLEY OF DEATH. 53 fissures in tlie eartli's crust, but tlie elevating power appears only to liave found vent at certain separate points along tliese fissures. At tliese points sub-aerial eruptions of volcanic ashes, sand, and scorise liave oc- curred, and occasionally streams of basaltic and tra- cliytic lava have poured out, until no less tlian thirty- eight cones, some of immense size, have been formed on this island. Their peculiar character is, that they are distinct and separate mountains, and not peaks in a continuous chain. The second characteristic of these mountains is the great quantity of sulphur they produce. White clouds of sulphurous acid gas continually v^reath the crests of these high peaks, and betoken the unceasing activity v^ithin their gigantic masses. This gas is the one that is formed when a friction-match is lighted, and is, of course, extremely destructive to all animal and vegetable life. At various localities in the vicinity of active vol- canoes and in old craters this gas still escapes, and the famous " Guevo Upas " or Valley of Poison, on the flanks of the volcano Papandayang, is one of these areas of noxious vapors. It is situated at the head of a valley on the outer declivity of the mountain, five hundred or seven hundred feet below the rim of the old crater which contains the " Telaga Bodas " or White Lake. It is a small, bare place, of a pale gray or yellow- ish color, containing many crevices and openings from which carbonic acid gas pours out from time to time. Here both Mr. Keinwardt and Dr. Junghuhn saw a great number of dead animals of various kinds, as dogs, cats, tigers, rhinoceroses, squirrels, and other rodents. 54: TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. many birds, and even snakes, wlio liad lost their lives in this fatal place. Besides carbonic acid gas, sulpliur- ous acid gas also escapes. TMs was tlie only gas pres- ent at the time of Dr. Junghnhn's visit, and is j)rol)- ably the one that causes such certain destruction to all the animals that wander into this valley of death. The soft parts of these animals, as the shin, the mus- cles, and the hair or feathers, were found by both ob- servers quite entire, while the bones had crumbled and mostly disappeared. The reason that so many dead animals are found on this spot, while none exist in the surrounding forests, is because beasts of prey not only cannot consume them, but even they lose their lives in the midst of these poisonous gases. It was in such a place that the deadly upas was fabled to be found. The first account of this wonder- ful tree was given by Mr. IST. P. Foersch, a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East India Company. His original article was published in the fourth vol- ume of Pennant's " Outlines of the Globe," and re- j)eated in the London Magazine for September, 1785. He states that he saw it himself, and describes it as " the sole individual of its species, standing alone, in a scene of solitary horror, on the middle of a naked, blasted plain, surrounded by a circle of mountains, the whole area of which is covered with the skele- tons of birds, beasts, and men. Not a vestige of vege- table life is to be seen within the contaminated atmos- j)here, and even the fishes die in the water ! " This, like most fables, has some foundation in fact ; and a large forest-tree exists in Java, the Antiaris toxica/ria of botanists, that has a poisonous sap. When its THE UPAS. 55 bark is cut, a sap floAvs out mucli resembling milk, but thicker and more viscid. A native prepared some poison from tliis kind of sap for Dr. Horsfield. He mingled witli it about half a drackm of tlie sap of the following vegetables — arum, kempferia galanga, anomum, a kind of zerumbed, common onion or garlic, and a draclim and a lialf of black pepper. This poison proved mortal to a dog in one kour ; a mouse in ten minutes ; a monkey in seven ; a cat in fifteen; and a large buffalo died in two kours and ten minutes from tke effects of it. A similar poison is prepared from tke sap of tke clietek^ a climbing vine. Tke deadly anckar is tkus pictured in Darwin's " Botanic Garden : " " Fierce in dread silence, on the blasted heath, Fell Upas sits, the hydra-tree of death ! So, from one root, the envenomed soil below, A thousand vegetative serpents grow ! In shinmg rays the steady monster spreads O'er ten square leagues his far-diverging head. Or in one trunk entwists his tangled form. Looks o'er the clouds, and hisses at the storm ; Steeped in fell poison, as his sharp teeth part, A thousand tongues in quick vibration dart, Snatch the proud eagle towering o'er the heath, Or pounce the lion as he stalks beneath ; Or strew, as martial hosts contend in vain, With human skeletons the whitened plain." All tke nortk coast of Java is very low, often forming a morass, except kere and tkere wkere some mountain sends out a spur to form a low keadland. As we neared Madura tkis low land spread out be- neatk tke skallow sea and we were obliged to keep 56 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. eight or ten miles from land. On both sides of tlie Madura Strait tlie land is also low, and on the left hand we passed many villages of native fishermen who tend hamhoo weirs that extend out a long way from the shore. Here, for the first time, I saw "boats with outrig- gers. Each had one such float on the leeward side, while, on a hind of rack on the windward side, was placed a canoe and every thing on board that Avas movable. Each boat carries two triangular sails, made of narrow, white cloths, with occasionally a red or black one in the middle or on the margins by way of ornament. Just before entering the road of Surabaya we passed Gresik, a small village of Chinese and other foreigners, situated immediately on the beach. It is an old site and famous in the early history of Java, but the houses seemed mostly new, and their red- tiled roofs contrasted |)rettily with their white ridge- poles and gable-ends. It was here, according to the Javanese historians, that the Mohammedan religion was first established on their soil. At Surabaya there appears to be much more busi- ness than at Batavia, and we found a larger number of vessels at anchor in the roads. At Batavia, the anchorage is somewhat sheltered by the islands at the mouth of the bay. At Samarang, the anchorage is quite exposed during the Avestern monsoon, and the swell and surf are sometimes so great that boats can- not land, but at Surabaya the shipping is perfectly sheltered from all gales. There are, however, strong tidal currents, on account of the size of the bay, at MODE OF NAVIGATING MUD-FLATS. 57 the ancliorage, and tlie narrow straits tliat connect it witli the sea. These straits, though narrow, are not dangerous, and this may be said to be the only good harbor that is frequented on the island of Java. On the south coast, at Chilachap, there is a safe and well- sheltered anchorage, but it has very little trade. At evening, when the water is ebbing, flocks of white herons range themselves in lines along its re- treating edge, and calmly await the approach of some unlucky fish. Then the fishing-boats come up from the east, spreading out their white sails, and forming a counterpart to the lines of white herons along the shore. The natives, unable to walk to their huts on the banks, have a most novel and rapid mode of navigating these mud-flats. A board about two feet wide, five or six feet long, and curved up at one end like the run- ner of a sled, is placed on the soft mud, and the fish- erman rests the left knee on it while he kicks with the right foot, in just the way that boys push them- selves on their sleds over ice or snow. In this way they go as fast as a man would walk on solid ground. Like Batavia and Samarang, Surabaya* is sit- uated on both sides of a small river, on low land, but not in a morass, like the old city of Batavia, and yet much nearer the shipping. This river has been changed into a canal by walling in its banks. Near its entrance it is lined on one side with nice * The population of the Eesidency of Surabaya, which also includes that of the city of the same name, is 1,278,600. Of these, 5,124 are Eu- ropeans, 1,261,271 are natives, 7,603 are Chinese, 1,477 are Arabs, and 3,125 are from other Eastern nations. 58 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. dwelling-liouses, and bordered witli a row of fine sliade-trees. Back of tliese dwellings is tlie govern- ment dockyard. It is very carefully built, and con- tains a dry-dock, a ]3lace to take up skips like our railways, ample work-skops, and large skeds for stor- ing away lumber. Tkey were tken building six small steamers and two or tkree boats, besides a great dry-dock for tke largest skijDS. Here was tke Me- dusa, tke skip tkat led tke allied Dutck, Englisk, Frenck, and American fleet in tke attack on Simono- saki, at tke entrance of tke Inland Sea in Japan. Tke many scars in ker sides skowed tke dangerous part ske kad taken in tke attack, and I kave fre- quently keard tke Dutck officers speak witk a just pride of tke bravery and skill of ker officers in tkat engagement. Formerly, skips could only be re- paired by being " tkrown down " at Onrust, an isl- and six miles west of tke road at Bata^da ; but now nearly all suck work is done in tkis yard. It was most enlivening to kear tke rapid ringing of kam- mers on anvils — a sound one can rarely enjoy in tkose dull Eastern cities. Tke government mackine-skop is anotker proof of tke determination of tke Dutck to make for tkem- selves wkatever tkey need, and to be independent of foreign markets. Here tkey make many castings, but tkeir ckief business is manufacturing steam-boil- ers for tke navy. Nine kundred Javanese were tken in tkis establiskment, all laboring voluntarily, and kaving fall liberty to leave wkenever tkey ckose. Most of tke overseers even are natives, and but few Europeans are employed in tke Avkole works. Tkey THE JAVANESE AS MECHANICS. 59 all perform their allotted tasks quietly and steadily, without loud talking or any unnecessary noise. Some of tkem are so skilful that they receive nearly two guilders per day. Tkese facts skow^ tke capabili- ties of tke Javanese, and indicate tkat tkere may yet be a brigkt future for tkis people. Here tke standard weigkts and measures for tke government are manufactured; and as an instance of tke lon- gevity of tkis people, wken tkey are correct in tkeir kabits, tke director told me tkat one native kad worked for fifty-seven years in tkat department, and for some time kad been assisted by botk Ms sons and grandsons. He kad just retired, and tke director kad been able to obtain for Mm a pension of full pay on account of tke long time ke kad been in tke service. Tkere were tkree otkers still in tke works, wko also began fifty-seven years ago. Suck cases are tke more remarkable, because tkese natives are usual- ly unable to labor at tke age of tkirty-five or forty, on account of tkeir dissolute kabits. Most of tkeir mackinery is not as nicely finisked as tkat imported from Europe, but it appears to be quite as durable. Yet tke fact tkat some Javanese kave tke capacity to do nice work was proved by one in ckarge of tke en- graving-department,, wkose fine lines would kave been creditable to many a European. A merckant also kas a similar mackine-skop on a still greater scale. Near by are tke government artillery- works, wkere all tke parts of wood and iron and tke saddles and kar- nesses are manufactured, every tking but tke guns. Tke wood used is carefally-seasoned teak. It is ex- tremely durable, and combines in a good degree botk 60 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. lightness and strengtli. Tlie leather is made by tlie natives from hides of the sapi, or cattle of Madura, the only kind seen here in Surabaya. It is light and , flexible, and somevi^hat spongy compared to that made fi'om our Northern hides. When it is wet it " spots," the wet places taking a darker color, which they retain when the leather again becomes dry. The director of the works thought that these defects might be remedied by adopting some other mode of tanning it. The leather made from the hide of the buffalo is thin, and, at the same time, excessively rigid. The streets of Surabaya are narrow compared to those of Batavia; but they are far better provided with shade-trees of different species, among which the tamarind, with its highly compound leaves, ap- pears to be the favorite. Here, as in all the other chief cities of the archipelago, the dusty streets are usually sprinkled by coolies, who carry about two large wa- tering-pots. In the centre of the city, on an open square, is the opera-house, a large, well-proportioned building, neatly j)ainted and frescoed within. In the suburbs is the public garden, nicely laid out, and abounding in richly-flowering shrubs. There were a number of birds peculiar to the East : a cassowary from Ceram, a black-swan from Australia, and some beautiful wild pheasants ( Galhis) from Madura. Of this genus, Gcdlus, there are two wild species on that island and in Java. One of these, Gallus hankiva^ is also found in Sumatra and the peninsula of Ma- lacca. A third species is found in the Philippines, but none is yet known in the great islands of Borneo and Celebes or in any of the islands eastward. On the \\^ y // WATERING THE STREETS, JAVA. From a photograph. COCK-FIGHTING. 61 peninsula of Malacca, Sumatra, Borneo, and tlie Spice Islands, tlie Malay Avord mjaiin is used, but on tlie Philippines and Java the Javanese word maniik is frequently heard— it has hence been inferred that the Malays and Javanese were the first to domesticate it, and distribute it over the archipelago. Temminck regards the Gallus hanhiva as the progenitor of our common fowl. If he is right in this conjecture, it was probably brought into Greece by the Persians, for the Greeks sometimes called it the "Persian bird." ■^* Its early introduction into Europe is shown by representations of it on the walls of the Etruscan tombs, and Mr. Crawfard states that it was found in England more than two thousand years ago. The small variety known to us as " the Bantam," is not a native of Java, but received that name because it was first seen by European traders on Japanese junks which came to that city to trade. All the Malay race, except the Javanese, have the most inordinate thirst for gambling, and their favorite method of gratifying this passion is cock- fighting. This is forbidden by the Dutch Govern- ment ; but in the Philippines the S]3anish only sub- ject the gamblers to a heavy tax, and the extent to which it is indulged in those islands is indicated by a yearly revenue of forty thousand dollars from this source alone. The passion for this vice among the Malays is also shown in their language ; for, according to Mr. Crawfurd, there is one specific name for cock-fight- ing, one for the natural and one for the artificial spur * Crawfurd's Diet. Ind. Arch. 62 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. of tlie cock, two names for tlie comb, three for crow- ing, two for a cock-pit, and one for a professional cock-fighter. But to return to tlie garden, wkere, among more interesting objects, were some images of tbe Brah- man or Buddhist gods, worshipped by the ancient Javanese. One, particularly monstrous, appeared to have the body of a man and the head of a beast. A favorite model was to represent a man with the head of an elephant, seated on a throne that rested on a row of human skulls, , Hinduism was undoubtedly introduced into the archipelago in the same way as Mohammedanism — namely, by those who came from the West to trade, first into Sumatra, and afterward into Java and Cele- bes. This commercial intercourse probably began in the very remotest ages ; for, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the Egyptians used tin in manufacturing their implements of bronze two thousand years be- fore the Christian era, and it is more probable that this tin came from the Malay peninsula than from Cornwall, the only two sources of any importance that are yet known for this valuable metal, if we in- clude with the former the islands of Billiton and Banca. In the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea," written about a. d. 60, it is stated that this mineral was found at two cities on the western coast of India, but that it came from' countries farther east. In this same descriptive treatise it is also mentioned that the malahratlirum^ a kind of odoriferous gum imported from India for the use of the luxurious Bomans, was found at Barake, a port on the coast of Malabar, From a photograph. EARLY COMMERCE IN TEE ARCHIPELAGO. Q^ but that it likewise came from some land farther east ; and malalbrathrum is supposed hj many to be the modern benzoin, a resin obtained from the Styrax henzoin^ a plant only found in the lands of the Battas, in Sumatra, and on the coast of Brunai, in the northern part of Borneo. Although we gather from the records of Western nations these indications of products coming from the archipelago in the earliest ages, yet we have no information in regard to the time that the Hindu traders, who sailed eastward from India and pur- chased these valuable articles, succeeded in planting their own religion among those distant nations. The annals of both the Malay and Javanese are evidently fanciful, and are generally considered unreliable for any date previous to the introduction of Mohamme- danism. Simple chronological lists are found in Java, which refer as far back as a. d. 78 ; but Mr. Craw- furd says that " they are incontestable fabrications, often differing widely from each other, and con- taining gaps of whole centuries." The j)eople who came from India on these early voyages Avere probably of the same Talagu or Telugu nation as those now called by the Malays " Klings " or " Kalings," a word evidently derived from Kalinga, the Sanscrit name for the northern part of the coast of Coromandel. They have always continued to trade with the peninsula, and I met them on the coast of Sumatra. Barbosa, who saw them at Malacca when the Portuguese first arrived at that city, thus de- scribes them : '^' " There are many great merchants * Crawfurd's Diet. Incl. Arch., " Hindustan." 64 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. here, Moor as well as Gentile strangers, but diiefly of tlie Chetis, who are of the Coromandel coast, and have large ships, which they call giunchi " (junks). Unlike the irregular winds that must have greatly discouraged the early Greeks and Phoenicians from long voyages over the Euxine and the Mediterra- nean, the steady monsoons of the Bay of Bengal in- vited those peoj)le out to sea, and by their regular changes promised to bring them within a year safely back to their homes. The United States steamship Iroquois was then Jying in the roads, and our consular agent at this port invited Captain Eodgers, our consul from Batavia, who was there on business, and myself, to take a ride with him out to a sugar-plantation that was under his care. In those hot countries it is the custom to start early on pleasure excursions, in order to avoid the scorching heat of the noonday sun. We were therefore astir at six. Our friend had obtained a large post-coach giving ample room for four persons, but, like all such carriages in Java, it was so heavy and clumsy that both the driver and a footman, who was perched up in a high box behind, had to con- stantly lash our four little ponies to keep them up to even a moderate rate of sj)eed. Our ride of ten miles was over a well-graded road, beautifully shaded for most of the way with tamarind-trees. Parallel with the carriage-roads, in Java, there is always one for buf- faloes and carts, and in this manner the former are al- most always kept in prime order. Such a great double highway begins at Angir, on the Strait of Sunda, and extends throughout the whole length of the island to THE TELEGRAPH IN JAVA AND SUMATRA. 65 Banyuwangi, on tlie Strait of Bali. It passes near Bantam and Batavia, and tlience along tlie low lands near tlie north coast to Clieribon and Samarang, thence south of Mount Japara and so eastward. This, I was informed, was made by Marshal Daendals, who governed Java under the French rule in 1809. There is also a military road from Samarang to Surakarta and Johyokarta, where the two native princes now reside, Java also enjoys a very complete system of telegraphic communication. On the 23d of October, 1856, the first line, between Batavia (Weltevreden) and Buitenzorg, was finished. ^ Immediately after, it was so rapidly extended that, in 1859, 1,670 English miles were completed. A telegraphic cable was also laid in that year from Batavia up the Straits of Banca and Rhio to Singaj)ore ; but, unfortunately, it was broken in a short time, probably by the anchor of some vessel in those shallow straits. After it had been repaired it was immediately broken a second time, and in 1861 the enterprise was given up, but now they are laying another cable across the Strait of Sunda, from Angir to the district of Lampong; thence it will extend up the west coast to Bencoolen and Padang, and, passing across the Padang plateau, through Fort de Bock and Paya Kombo, come to the Strait of Malacca, and be laid directly across to Singa- pore. These Javanese ponies go well on a level or down- hill, but when the road becomes steep they frequent- ly stop altogether. In the hilly parts of Java, there- fore, the natives are obliged to fasten their buffaloes to your carriage, and you must patiently wait for 5 66 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. those sluggisli animals to take you up to tlie crest of the elevation. Our road tliat morning led over a low country, whicli vras devoted wholly to rice and sugar-cane. Some of these rice-fields stretched away on either hand as far as the eye could see, and' appeared as boundless as the ocean. Numbers of natives were scattered through these wide fields, selecting out the ripened blades, which their religion requires them to cut off one hy one. It appears an endless task thus to gather in all the blades over a wide plain. These are clipped off near the top, and the rice in this state, with the hull still on, is called " paddy." The re- maining part of the stalks is left in the fields to enrich the soil. After each crop the ground is spaded or dug up with a large hoe, or ploughed w^ith a buffalo, and afterward harrowed with a huge rake; and to aid in breaking up the clods, water to the dej^th of four or five inches is let in. This is retained by dikes which cross the fields at right angles, dividing them up into little beds from fifty to one hundred feet square. The seed is sown thickly in small plats at the beginning of the rainy monsoon. When the plants are four or five inches high they are transferred to the larger beds, which are still kept overflowed for some time. They come to maturity about this time (June 14th), the first part of the eastern monsoon, or dry season. Such low lands that can be thus flooded are called swwas. Although the Javanese have built magnificent temples, they have never invented or adopted any apparatus that has come into common use for raising water for their rice-fields, not even the VISIT TO A SUGAR PLANTATION. Q^ simple means employed by tlie ancient Egyptians along tlie hill, and wMcli tlie slabs from tlie palaces at Nineveli show ns were also used along the Eu- phrates. Only one crop is usually taken from the soil each year, unless the fields can be readily irrigated. Ma- nure is rarely or never used, and yet the sawas ap- pear as fertile as ever. The sugar-cane, however, quickly exhausts the soil. One cause of this probably is that the whole of every cane is taken from the field except the top and root, while only the upper part of the rice-stalks are carried away, and the rest is burned or allowed to decay on the ground. On this account only one-third of a plantation is devoted to its cul- ture at any one time, the remaining two-thirds being planted with rice, for the sustenance of the natives that work on that plantation. These crops are kept rotating so that the same fields are liable to an extra drain from sugar-cane only once in three years. On each plantation is a village of Javanese, and several of these villages are under the immediate manage- ment of a confroleur. It is his duty to see that a cer- tain number of natives are at work every day, that they prepare the ground, and put in the seed at the proper season, and take due care of it till harvest- time.'"'' The name of the plantation we were to see was " Seroenie." As we neared it, several long, low, white buildings came into view, and two or three high '*' For the history of the culture-system and government in the Nether- lands India, consult Money's " Java." 68 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. cliiniiieys, pouring out dense volumes of black smoke. By tke road was a dwelling-liouse, and the " fabrik " was in tke rear. Tke canes are cut in tke field and. bound into bundles, eack containing twenty-five. They are tken kauled to tke factory in clumsy, two- wkeeled carts called pedatis, witk a yoke of sapis. On tkis plantation alone tliere are two hundred suck carts. Tke mode adopted kere of obtaining tke sugar from tke cane is tke same as in our country. It is partially clarified by pouring over it, wkile yet in tke eartken pots in wkick it cools and crystallizes, a quantity of clay, mixed witk water, to tke consist- ency of cream. Tke water, filtering tkrougk, waskes tke crystals and makes tke sugar, wkick up to tkis time is of a dark brown, almost as wkite as if it kad been refined. Tkis simple process is said to kave been introduced by some one wko noticed tkat wkerever tke birds stepped on tke brown sugar witk tkeir muddy feet, in tkose places it became strange- ly wkite. After all tke sugar kas been obtained tkat is possible, tke ckeap and impure molasses tkat drains off is fermented witk a small quantity of rice. Palm-Avine is tken added, and from tkis mixture is distilled tke liquor known as " arrack," wkick conse- quently differs little from rum. It is considered, and no doubt rigktly, tke most destructive stimulant tkat can be placed in tke kuman stomack, in tkese kot regions. From Java large quantities are skipped to tke cold regions of Sweden and Norway, wkere, if it is as injurious, its manufacturers are, at least, not obliged to witness its poisonous effects. After tke sugar kas been dried in tke sun it A TANDU. From a photograph. ^,*!iiiifei THE SAPI, OR OX OF MADURA. p. 68. WHERE OUR SUGAR-CANE CAME FROM. 69 is packed in large cylindrical baskets of bamboo, ancl is ready to be taken to market and skipped abroad."^ Three species of tke sugar-cane are recognized by botanists : tke Saccliarum sinensis of Ckina ; tke Saccliarum officinarum of India, wkick was introduced by tke Arabs into Soutkern Europe, and tkence trans- ported to our own country f and tke West Indies ; and tke Saccliarum molaceiim of Takiti, of wkick tke cane of tke Malay Arckipelago is probably only a variety. Tkis view of tke last species is strengtkened by tke similarity of tke names for it in Malaysia and Poly- nesia. Tke Malays call it tabu ; tke inkabitants of tke Pkilippines, tubu ; tke Kayans of Borneo, turo ; tke natives of Floris, between Java and Timur, and of Tongatabu, in Polynesia, tau ; tke people of Takiti and tke Marquesas, to ; and tke Sandwick Islanders, Too. It is eitker a native of tke arckipelago or was in- troduced in tke remotest times. Tke Malays used to cultivate it tken as tkey do now, not for tke purpose of making sugar, but for its sweet juice, and great quantities of it are seen at tkis time of year in all tke markets, usually cut up into skort pieces and tke outer layers or rind removed. Tkese people appear also to kave been wkoUy ignorant of tke mode of making sugar from it, and all tke sugar, or more properly molasses, tkat was used, was obtained tken as it is now in tke Eastern islands, namely, by boil- * During 1865 the government sold 250,000 piculs (16,666 tons) of sugar, but the total exported from Java was two million piculs. t Our word sugar comes from the Arabic saJcar, and that from the Sanscrit sarkm'a, thus indicating in its name how it first came to be known to Europeans. 70 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. ing down the sap of the gomuti-palm {Borassus go- muti).^ Sugar from cane was first brought to Europe by the Arabs, who, as we know from the Chi- nese annals, frequently visited Canpu, a port on Hanchow Bay, a short distance south of Shanghai. Dioscorides, who lived in the early part of the first century, appears to be the earliest writer in the West who has mentioned it. He calls it saccliaron^ and says that " in consistence it was like salt." Pliny, who lived a little later in the same century, thus de- scribes the article seen in the Roman markets in his day : " Saccharon is a honey which forms on reeds, white like gum, which crumbles under the teeth, and of which the largest pieces are of the size of a fil- bert." (Book xii., chap. 8.) This is a perfect description of the sugar or rock- candy that I found the Chinese manufacturing over the southern and central parts of China during my long journey ings through that empire, and at the same time it is not in the least applicable to the dark- brown, crushed sugar made in India. * Mr. Crawfurd states that it is a similar product made from the sap of the Palmyra palm {Borassus flahelliformis), and not the sugar of the cane, that forms the saccharine consumption of tropical Asia, i. e., among the Co chin- Chinese, the Siamese, the Burmese, and the inhabitants of Southern India, including the Telinga nation Avho introduced Hinduism and Sanscrit names among these people, and probably were the first to teach them how to obtain sugar from the sap of palm-trees. CHAPTER III. THE FLOEA AND FAUNA OF THE TEOPICAL EAST. June l^tli. — At 8 a. m. we left our anchorage off Surabaya, and steamed down the Madura Strait for Macassar, tlie capital of Celebes. Along tlie sliores of tlie strait were many villages of fishermen, and bamboo weirs extending out to a distance of five or six miles from both the Java and Madura shores, and showing well how shallow the water must be so far from land. During the forenoon it was nearty calm, but the motion of the steamer supplied a pleasant air. In the afternoon the wind rose to a light breeze from the east. At noon we passed Pulo Kambing (" Goat Island "), a small, low coral island off the south coast of Madura. Near by was a fleet of small fishing-boats, each containing two men, who were only protected from the broiling sun by a hat and a narrow cloth about the loins. These boats and other larger ones farther out to sea were ex- tremely narrow, and provided with outriggers. Madura receives its name from a Hindu legend, which makes it the abode of the demigod, Baladewa. It has but one mountain-range, and that crosses it from north to south. It is, therefore, not well wa- 72 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. tered, and unsuitable for raising rice ; and many of its people liave been obliged to migrate to tlie ad- joining fertile shores of Java. The coffee-tree is raised on this island, but the land is best adapted for pasturage of the sapi^ which is similar in its habits to our own neat-cattle, and never wallows in mires and morasses like the buffalo. In the mountains on the western part of Java, a wild species, the hanteng {Bos sondaicus), is still found. It is not regarded as the source of the sapi^ but a fertile cross is ob- tained from the two, and this intermediate breed is said to be the one used on Bali and Lombok. The sapi is found on all the islands to and including Ti- mur, on Borneo, Celebes, and the Spice Islands, and. has been introduced into the Philippines since their discovery, and now lives in a wild state on Luzon, just as the cattle of the pampas in South America, which have also descended from the domesticated breeds imported by the Spaniards. On the eastern end of the island, which is quite low, great quantities of salt are obtained by evapo- rating water in " pans," or small areas enclosed with low dikes, like rice-fields. It is also manufactured in a similar manner at several places on the north coast of Java and on the western shore of Luzon, in the province of Pangasinan. Generally the coasts of the islands throughout the archipelago are either too high, or so low as to form merely muddy morasses, which are mostly covered with a dense growth of mangroves. In some places on the south coast of Java, sea- water is sprinkled over sand. When this water has evaporated the process is repeated. The sand is then MODE OF MANUFACTURING SALT. Y3 gathered, and water filtered tlirougli it and evapo- rated by artificial heat. In Borneo, and among some of tlie Philippines, marine plants are burned, and the lye made from their ashes is evaporated for the sake of the salt contained in the residuum. All through the interior, and among the mountains, houses are built for storing it, and officials are ap- pointed to dispose of it to the natives. The quan- tity yearly manufactured for the government at all the various places is about 40,000 koyangs, or 80,000 tons ; but it is not allowed to be shipped and used until it is five years old, and a supply of 200,000 koyangs, or 400,000 tons, is therefore constantly kept on hand. It is deposited in the government store- houses by individuals at one-third of a guilder j)er picul. It is then transported and sold at a great profit by the government, which monopolizes the traffic in this necessary condiment, and obtains a large portion of its revenue in this manner.''"'" In the afternoon we were abreast the high Tenger (i. e., wide or spacious) mountains. Here is the famous " Sandy Sea," a strange thing on an island covered with such luxuriant vegetation as everywhere appears in Java, To reach it one has to climb an old vol- cano to a height of about 7,500 feet above the sea, when he suddenly finds himself on the rim of an old crater of an irregular elliptical form, with a minor * The prices obtained for it are established as follows : On Madura and the north coast of Java, 6.92 guilders; on the south coast, 5.92 gl. ; at Bencoolen, Padang, and Priaman, on the west coast of Sumatra, 6.66f gl. ; Ayar Bangis and Natal, 6 gl. ; Palembang, 5.10 gl. ; Banca, 6.72 gl, ; Bandyermassin, 6.66 gl. ; Sambas and Pontianak, 5.10 gl. 74 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. axis of tlwee and a half and a major axis of four and a half miles. It is the largest crater in Java, and one of tlie largest in tlie world. Its bottom is a level floor of sand, wMcli in some places is drifted by tlie wind like tlie sea, and is properly named in Malay tlie Lant Pasar, or " Sandy Sea." From this sandy floor rise four cones, where the eruptive force has suc- cessively found vent for a time, the greatest being evidently the oldest, and the smallest the present active Bromo, or Brama, from the Sanscrit Brama, the god of fire. The position and relation of this Bromo, as compared to the surrounding crater, is en- tirely analogous to those that exist between Vesuvius and Monte Somma. The outer walls of this old mountain are of trachytic lava, and Dr. Junghuhn thinks its history may be summed up thus : first, a period when the trachyte was formed; this was fol- lowed by a period of trachytic lavas, then of obsid- ian ; fourth, of obsidian and pumice-stone ; fifth, the sand period, during which an enormous quantity of sand was thrown out, and the present sandy floor formed with the cones rising from it ; and sixth, the present ash-period, during which only fine ashes are thrown out from time to time, and steam and sul- phurous acid gas are constantly emitted. The earliest descriptions of this crater represent it nearly as it is seen at the present day; but great eruptions, similar to the one supposed to have oc- curred, have been witnessed by Europeans since they first came to Java. In the year 1772 the volcano Papandayang, which is near the south coast of Java, and about in Long. 108° E., threw out such an ERUPTION OF MOUNT GALUNGGONG. 75 immense quantity of scorisB and ashes, tliat Dr. Jungliulm thinks a layer nearly fifty feet tliick was spread over an area within a radius of seven miles ; and yet all this was thrown out during a single night. Forty native villages were buried beneath it, and about three thousand souls are supposed to have perished between this single setting and rising of the sun. Dr. Horsfield, who drew up an account of this terrible phenomenon from the stories of the natives, wrongly supposed that " an extent of ground, of the mountain and its environs, fifteen miles long, and fall six broad, was by this commotion swallowed up within the bowels of the earth." On the 8th of July, 1822, Mount Galunggong, an old volcano, but a few miles northeast of Papanda- yang, suffered a far more terrible and destructive eruption. At noon on that day not a cloud could be seen in the sky. The wild beasts gladly sought the friendly shades of the dense forest ; the hum of myriads of insects was hushed, and not a sound was to be heard over the highly-cultivated declivities of this mountain, or over the rich adjoining plain, but the dull creaking of some native cart drawn by the sluggish buffalo. The natives, under shelter of their rude huts, were giving themselves up to indolent repose, when suddenly a frightful thundering was heard in the earth ; and from the top of this old vol- cano a dark, dense mass was seen rising higher and higher into the air, and spreading itself out over the clear sky with such an aj)palling rapidity that in a few moments the whole landscape was shrouded in the darkness of night. Y6 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. Tliroiigli this thick darkness flashes of lightning gleamed in a hundred lines, and many natives were instantly struck down to the earth by stones falling fi'oni the sky. Then a deluge of hot water and flow- ing mud rose over the rim of the old crater, and poured down the mountain-sides, sweeping away trees and beasts and human bodies in its seething mass. At the same moment, stones and ashes and sand were projected to an enormous height into the air, and, as they fell, destroyed nearly every thing within a radius of more than twenty miles. A few villages, that were situated on high hills on the lower declivities of the mountain, strangely escaped the surrounding destruction by being above the streams of hot water and flowing mud, while most of the stones and ashes and sand that were thrown out passed completely over them, and destroyed many villages that were farther removed from the centre of this great eruption. The thundering was first heard at half-past one o'clock. At four the extreme violence of the erup- tion was past ; at five the sky began to grow clear once more, and the same sun that at noon had shed his life-giving light over this rich landscape, at even- ing was casting his rays over the same spot then changed into a scene of utter desolation. A second eruption followed within five days, and by that time more than twenty thousand persons had lost their lives. When the mountain could be ascended, a great valley was found, which Dr. Junghuhn considers analogous to the " Val del Bove " on the flanks of JAVA COMPARED WITH CUBA. 77 ^tna, except tliat a great depression among these movable materials could not liave sucli higli, precipi- tous walls as are seen in tliat deep gulf. This erup- tion was quite like that of Papandayang, except that there was a lake in the bottom of this crater which supplied the hot water and the mud, while all the materials thrown out by the former volcano were in a dry state. In a similar way it is supposed the great crater and the "Sandy Sea" of the Tenger Mountains were formed in ancient times. On these Tenger Mountains live a peculiar people, who speak a dialect of the Javanese, and, despite the zealous efforts of the Mohammedan priests, still retain their ancient Hindu religion. In the evening, fires appeared on the hills near the sea. This was the last we saw of Java, which, though but one-sixth of the area of Borneo, and one- third that of Sumatra, is by far the most important island in the archipelago. It is to the East Indies what Cuba is to the West Indies. In each there is a great central chain of mountains. Both shores of Cuba are opposite small bodies of water, and are con- tinuously low and swampy for miles, but in Java only the north coast borders on a small sea. This shore is low, but the southern coast, on the margin of the wide Indian Ocean that stretches away to the Antarctic lands, is high and bold, an exception which is in accordance with the rule that the higher elevations are opposite the greater oceans, or, more properly, that they stand along the borders of the ocean-beds or greatest depressions on the surface of our globe. In Java, where the coast is rocky. 78 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. the rocks are hard, volcanic basalts and tracliytes, wliicli resist the action of* the sea, and the shore-line is therefore quite regular; but in Cuba there is a fringing of soft coral rock, which the waves quickly wear away into hundreds of little projecting head- lands and bays, and on the map the island has a ragged border. In its geological structure, Cuba, with its central axis of mica slates, granitic rocks, serpentines, and marbles, has a more perfect analogue in Sumatra; for in Java the mountains, instead of being formed by elevations of preexisting strata, are merely heaps of scorise, ashes, sand, and rock, once fluid, which have all been ejected out of separate and distinct vents. The area of Java is estimated at 38,250 square geographical miles; that of Cuba at about 45,000. The length of Java is 575 geographi- cal or 666 statute miles; that of Cuba 750 statute miles. But while the total population of Cuba is estimated only at a million and a half, the total population of Java and Madura is now (1865), according to official statements, 13,917,368.* In 1755, after fifteen years of civil war, the total popu- lation of Java and Madura was but 2,001,911. In a single century, therefore, it has increased more than sixfold. This is one of the beneficial efi^'ects of a government that can put down rebellions and all in- ternal wars, and encourage industry. In Cuba, of a total area of thirty million acres, it was estimated, in 1857, that only 48,572 were under cultivation, or, * Of this number 27,105 are Europeans; 13,704,535 are natives; 156,192 are Chinese ; 6,764 are Arabs ; and 22,772 are from other East- ern nations. See Appendix B. THE FORESTS OF JAVA. 79 including pasturage, 218,161 acres. In Java and Madura, last year (1864), tlie cultivated fields and the groves of cocoa-nut palms covered an area of 2,437,037 acres. In Cuba, from 1853 to 1858, tlie yearly exports were from 27,000,000 to 32,000,000 of dollars, and the imports of about the same value. In Java, last year, the imports amounted to 66,846,412 guilders (26,738,565 dollars) ; and the exports to the enormous sum of 123,094,798 guilders (49,237,919 dollars). During 1864 twenty-foui' ships arrived from the United States, of 12,610 tons' capacity, and three sailed for our country, of a united capacity of 2,258 tons.^ Both of these great islands abound in forests, that yield large quantities of valuable timber. Java furnishes the indestructible teak, from which the Malays and Javanese fitted out a fleet of three hun- dred vessels that besieged Malacca, two years after it had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese. In like manner the Spaniards, between 1724 and 1796, built with timber from the forests of Cuba an armada that numbered one hundred and fourteen vessels, carrying more than four thousand guns. From the Cuban forests come the indestructible lignum-vifw, and the beautiful mahogany. Those jungles shelter no wild animals larger than dogs, but these in Java are the haunts of wild oxen, tigers, one large and two small species of leopard, the rhinoceros, two wild species of hog, and -five species of weasel. Two of the latter yield musk ; and one, the YiA^erramusanga^ * For a list of tlie number of ships that arrived during 1864, their tonnage, and the countries from which they came, see Appendix E. 80 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. of tlie size of a cat, is also found in tlie Philippines. Six species of deer are found on this island, and two of tliem, tlie Cervus rufa and Cervus mantjaG^ are sometimes domesticated.* Tlie elephant is not found in Java, though it lives in Sumatra, Borneo, and the peninsula. Also the wild horse of Sumatra or Cele- bes does not exist in Java. Among the more noticeable birds of Java is a beautiful species of peacock, the Pavo spicifer. It was represented to me as quite abundant in some places along the south coast. The natives make very beautiful cigar-holders from fine strips of its quills. In Sumatra it is not found, but is represented by an allied species. Of pigeons, Java has no less than ten s|)ecies. The web-footed birds are remarkably few in species and numbers. A single duck, a teal, and two pelicans, are said to comprise the whole number. The white heron has already been noticed, and besides this, ten other species have been described. One of the smallest birds in Java, and yet, perhaps, the most important, from its great numbers, is the rice- eater, FTinfigilla oryzwora, a kind of sparrow. Great flocks of these birds are continually annoying the Malays as soon as the rice is nearly grown. The I' * Albinos are occasionally found among these animals. For a long time previous to 1840 there was a famous "white deer" on the coast at Antju, in the vicinity of Batavia. Many attempts were made to shoot it, and these invariably proved so unsuccessful, that the natives, finding they had an opportunity to give way to their insatiable love for the mar- vellous, were all fully con^Tinced that this animal was invulnerable. It was, however, shot at last, and proved to be of a gray, rather than a pure white. In 1845 a young one of a pure white color was caught at Macassar. MODE OF FRIGHTENING BIRDS. 81 natives have a very simple and eifective mode of driving tliem away. In tlie midst of a field a little bamboo house, sufficient to shelter its occupant from the rain and scorching sunshine, is perched high up on poles above the rice-stalks. Around each field are placed rows of tall, flexible stakes, which are con- nected together by a string. Many radiating lines of such stakes extend from the house to those along the borders, and the child or old person on watch has simply to pull any set of these lines in order to firighten away the birds from any part of the field. There are seven species of owls, and when the hooting of one is heard near any house, many of the natives believe that sickness or some other misfortune will certainly come to the inmates of that dwelling. Of eagles and falcons, or kites, eight species are men- tioned. One of the kites is very abundant at all the anchorages, and so tame as to light on the rigging of a ship quite near where the sailors are working. When it has caught any offal in its long talons, it does not fly away at once to a perch to consume the delicious morsel at its leisure, like many birds of prey, but is so extremely greedy that it tears off pieces with its beak and swallows them as it slowly sails along in the air. When we begin to examine the luxuriant flora of these tropical islands, almost the first tree that we notice by the shore is the tall, graceful cocoa-nut palm. Occasionally it is found in small clumps, far from the abode of man, for instead of being reared by his care, it often comes to maturity alone, and then in- vites him to take up his abode beneath its shade, by 82, TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. offering Iiim at the same time its fruit for food, and its leaves as ample thatcliing for tlie only kind of a hut whicli lie thinks he needs in an unchanging, tropical climate. As it stands along the shore, it invariably inclines toward its parent, the sea, for borne on the waves came the nut from which it sprang, and now fully grown, it seeks to make a due return to its ancestor by leaning over the shore and dropping into the ocean's bosom rich clusters of its golden fruit. Here, buoyed up by a thick husk which is covered with a water-tight skin, the living kernel safely floats over the calm and the stormy sea, until some friendly wave casts it high up on a distant beach. The hot sun then quickly enables it to thrust out its root- lets into the genial soil of coral sand and fragments of shells, and in a few years it too is seen tossing its crest of plumes high over the white surf, which in these sunny climes everywhere forms the margin of the deej)-blue ocean. When the nut is young, the shell is soft and not separate from the husk. In a short time it turns from a pale green to a light yellow. The shell is now formed, and on its inner side is a thin layer, so soft that it can be cut with a spoon. The natives now call it Ma/pa miida^ or the young cocoa-nut, and they rarely eat it except in this condition. As it grows older, the exterior becomes of a wood-color, the husk is dry, and the shell hard and surrounded on the in- side with a thick, tough, oily, and most indigestible layer, popularly known as "the meat" of the nut. This is the condition in which it is brought to our MODE OF MAKING COCOA-NUT OIL. 83 markets, but tlie Malays seldom or never think of eating it in this condition, and only value it for its oil. To obtain this the nut is broken, and the meat scraped out with a knife. This pulp is then boiled in a large pan, when the oil separates, floats on the top, and is skimmed off. This oil is almost tlie only substance used for lighting in the East, where far more lights are kept burning, in proportion to the foreign j)opulation, than in our own temperate zone, notwith- standing our long winter evenings, it being the custom there for each man to light his house and veranda very brilliantly every evening ; and, if it is a festive occasion, rows of lamps must be placed throughout his grounds. The natives also are fond of such display. The common lamp which they have for burning cocoa- nut oil is nothing but a glass tumbler. This is partly filled with water, a small quantity of oil is then poured in, and on this float two small splints that support a piece of pith in a vertical position for a wick. When the oil is first made, it has a sweet, rich taste, but in such a hot climate it soon becomes extremely rancid, and that used for cooking should not be more than two or three days old. The cool, clear water which the young nuts contain is a most refreshing drink in those hot climates, far preferable, according to my taste, to the warm, muddy water usually found in all low lands within the tropics. Especially can one appreciate it when, exposed to the burning sun on a low coral island, he longs for a single draught from the cold sparkling streams among his native New-England hills. He looks 84 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. around liim and realizes tliat lie is surrounded by the salt waters of tlie ocean — tlien one of his dark attendants, divining his desire, climbs the smooth trunk of a lofty palm, and brings down, apparently from the sky, a nectar delicious enough for the gods. This tree is of such importance to the natives that the Dutch officials are required to ascertain as nearly as possible the number of them in their sev- eral districts. In 1861 there were in Java and Madura nearly twenty millions of these trees, or more than three to every two natives. Near the cocoa-nut grows the Pandamis^ or " screw-pine," which may be correctly described as a trunk with branches at both ends. There are two species of it widely distributed over the archipelago. The flowers of one, the P. odoratissimus, are very fragrant and highly prized among the Malays. In some places mats and baskets are made from its leaves. Its woody fniit is of a spherical form, from four to six inches in diameter, and its surface is divi- ded with geometrical precision by projections of a pointed pyramidal or diamond shape. On the low lands, back from the shore, where the soil has been enriched with vegetable mould, the banana thrives. Unlike the cocoa-nut tree, it is sel- dom seen where it has not been planted by the hand of man. The traveller, therefore, who is worn out with his long wanderings through the thick, almost impassable, jungles, beholds with delight the long, green, drooping leaves of this tree. He knows that he is near some native hut where he can find a shelter from the hot sun, and slake his thirst with THE BANANA. 85 the water of tlie cocoa-nut, and appease Ms liunger on bananas and boiled rice, a simple and literally a frugal meal. Out of the midst of these drooping leaves hangs down the top of the main stem, with its fruit decreasing in size to the end. Some near the base are already changing from a dark green to a bright golden yellow. Those are filled with deli- cious juices, and they melt in your mouth like a deli- cately-flavored cream. Such bananas as can be purchased in our markets have been so bruised, and taste so little like this fruit at its home in the. tropics, or at least in the East Indian islands, that they scarcely serve to remind one of what he has been accustomed to enjoy. The number of the varieties of bananas and the difference between them is as great as among apples in our own land. Botanists call this tree the Mtisa paradisiaca^ for its fruit is so constantly ripening throughout the year, and is such a common article of food, that it corresponds well to " the tree that yielded her fruit every month," and whose " leaves were for the heal- ing of the nations." Besides these plants, there are also seen on the low lands Aroidece^ Amarantliacece^ papilionaceous or leguminous plants, and poisonous EupliorhiaGem. The papaw {Garica papaya) thrives luxuriantly on most soils. The natives are always fond of it, and I found it a most palatable fruit, but the Europeans in the East generally consider it a too coarse or com- mon fruit to be placed on the table. It was evident- ly introduced by the Portuguese and Spanish from 86 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. the West Indies, and tlie Malay name papaya comes from the ^'psmish jyapayo. At tlie lieiglit of one thousand feet ferns appear in very considerable numbers, and here also the use- ful bamboo grows in abundance, though it is found all the way down to the level of the sea. Practically this is a tree, but botanically it is grass, though it sometimes attains a height of seventy or eighty feet. It is used by the natives for the walls of their huts. For this purpose it is split open and pressed out flat, and other perpendicular and horizontal pieces hold it in place. It is also used for masts, spear-handles, baskets, vessels of all kinds, and for so many other necessary articles, that it seems almost indispensable to them. Its outer surface becomes so hard when partially burned, that it will take a sharp, almost cutting edge, and the weapons of the natives were probably all made in this manner previous to the introduction of iron. At the present time sharpened stakes, ranjaus, of . this kind are driven into the ground in the tall grass surrounding a ladang or garden, so that any native with naked feet (except the owner) will spear himself in attempting to ap- proach. I saw one man, on the island of Burn, who had received a frightful, ragged wound in this way. Above one thousand feet the palms, bananas, and papilionaceous plants become fewer, and are replaced by the lofty fig or waringin^ which, with its high top and long branches, rivals the magnificent palms by the sea-shore. The liquidambar also accompa- nies the fig. Orchidaceous plants of the most Won- derful forms appear on the forest-trees, and are fas- BAMBOO. Froai a sketch by Rahden Sa}eh. THE COTTON-WOOD TREE. 8T tened to tliem so closely, tliat tliey seem to l^e parts of them. Here tlae ferns also are seen in great variety. Lorantliaceoe and Melanostomacece are found in tMs zone. To this region belongs tlie beautiful cotton- wood tree. Its trunk is seldom more tlian ten or twelve incites in diameter, and rises up almost perpendicularly thirty feet. The bark is of a light olive-green, and remarkably smooth and fair. The limbs shoot out in whorls at right angles to the trunk, and, as they are separated by a considera- ble space, their open foliage is in strong contrast to the dark, dense jungle out of which they usually rise. They thrive well also along the banks of rivers. In Java these trees are frequently used as telegraph-posts — a purpose for which they are ad- mirably adapted on account of their regularity. Be- sides, any thing but a living post would quickly decay in these tropical lands. The fruit is a pod, and the fibrous substance it yields is quite like cot- ton. I found it very suitable for stuffing birds. Over this region of the fig comes that of oaks and laurels. Orchidaceous plants and melastomas are more abundant here. Above five or six thousand feet are ItubiaceoB^ heaths, and cone-bearing trees ; and from this region we pass up into one where small ferns abound, and lichens and mosses cover the rocks and hang from the trees. The tropical world is now beneath us, and we are in the temperate zone. The tops of all those volcanic mountains that are still in a state of eruption are usually bare ; and in others so large a quantity of the sulphur they pro- 88 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. duce is washed down tlieir sides by tlie rains tliat tlie vegetation is frequently destroyed for some dis- tance below tlieir summits. One of the great privileges of a residence in the tropics is to enjoy the delicious fruits of those re- gions in all their perfection. Of all those fruits, in my opinion, the mangostin ought unquestionably to be considered the first. This tree, a Garcinia, is about the size of a pear-tree. Its Malay name is onanggiista^ whence our own, but it is more gener- ally known in the archipelago by the Javanese name manggis. It flourishes in most of the islands from the south coast of Java to Mindanao, the southern- most of the Philippines, On the continent it yields well as far up the Peninsula of Malacca as Bankok, in Siam, and in the interior to 16° N., but on the coast of the Bay of Bengal only to 14° N. The at- tempts to introduce it into India have failed, but the fruit is sometimes sent from Singapore after it has been carefully coated with wax to exclude the air. In Ceylon they have only partially succeeded in cul- tivatins: it. All the trials to raise it in the West Indies have proved unsuccessful, so that this, the best of all tropical fruits, is never seen on our conti- nent. Its limited geographical range is the more remarkable, for it is frequently seen flourishing in the East Indian islands on all kinds of soils, and there is reason to suppose that it has been introduced into the Philippines within a comparatively late period, for in 1685 Dampier did not notice it on Mindanao. The fruit is of a spherical form, and a reddish-brown color. The outer part is a thick, tough FRUIT-MARKET, JAVA. From a photograph. THE CHOICEST OP TROPICAL FRUITS. 89 covering containing a wliite, opaque centre an incli or more in diameter. Tliis is divided into four or five parts, eacli of wMcli usually contains a small seed. This v^liite part lias a sligttly-sweet taste, and a ricli yet delicate flavor, wliicli is entirely peculiar to it- self. It tastes perhaps more like the white interior of a checkerberry than any other fruit in our tem- perate climate. The thick covering is dried by the natives and used for an astringent. Several fruits claim the second place in this scale. Some Europeans v^ould place the rambutan next the mangosti7i^ and others v^ould prefer the mango or the dul&u. The rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is nearly as large as an apple-tree. The fruit is globu- lar in form, and an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. The outside is a bright-red rind, orna- mented with coarse, scattered bristles. Within is a semi-transparent pulp, of a slightly acid taste, sur- rounding the seed. This tree, like the durian and the mangostin^ is wholly confined to the archipelago, and its acid fruit is most refreshing in those hot lands. At Batavia it is so abundant in February and March, that great quantities almost line the streets in the market parts of the city, and small boats are seen filled to overflowing with this bright, strawberry- colored fruit. The mango-tree {Ifangifera indicci) is a large, thickly-branching tree, with bright-green leaves. Its fruit is of an elliptical form, and contains a flat stone of the same shape. Before it is ripe it is so keenly acid, that it needs only to be preserved in salt water to be a nice pickle for the table, especially with the 90 TRAVELS IN THE ExiST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. universal cuny. As it ripens, tlie interior clianges from green to wliite, and then to a briglit yellow. A tougli outer skin being removed, there is seen a soft, almost pulpy, but somewhat fibrous mass within. Some of these fruits are extremely rich, and quite aromatic, while others have a sharp smack of turpen- tine. They even vary greatly in two localities, which may be but a few miles apart. Eumphius informs us that it was introduced into the moluccas by the Butch in 1655. It has also been introduced into Zanzibar and Madagascar, When the Spaniards first visited the Philippines it was not noticed, but now it is very common in those islands, and considerable quantities of it are shipped to China, where I was frequently assured it was very delicious ; but those who have tasted this or any other tropical fr'uit fi'om only one locality are by no means competent judges. At Singapore I found some very nice ones that had been brought down from Siam. It also flourishes in India, and Mr. Crawfurd thinks, from the fact that the Malay and Javanese names are evidently only corruptions of the old Sanscrit, that it was originally brought into the archipelago from the continent, and should not be regarded as indigenous. The diiku is another highly-esteemed fruit. The tree is tall, and bears a loose foliage. From its trunk and limbs little branchlets grow out, bearing in long clusters the fruit, which is about the size of a robin's