rhinoceros horn are rather a curiosity, and they
are much more practical than ordinary silver
spoons.
After my return to the hotel, I donned my black
coat and hat to meet the fashionable world taking a
drive along those splendid avenues,—the Eyswyk, with
the Governor-General’s palace, and the Harmonie, a
large club, the Waterloo-plein and the Konings-plein.
Often a band plays here for an hour, but the whole
thing is very tame,—after a few turns you may call on
your friends unless you are sufficiently intimate to do
so in the morning, en mi-toilette. The dinner hour is
usually seven o’clock, and the evening is whiled away
with conversation, a cigar, and a newspaper.
The beauty of Java’s tropical vegetation is proverbial,
and Batavia makes no exception. There are magnificent
bits of scenery at Parapattan, Greenoeng, and
Tiebault, river and canal banks displaying the charms
of the graceful bamboo and the stately palm,—everything
is smiling; but the climate, although much has
been done to improve it by way of drainage, is fatal to
all who exceed the strictest rule of diet and sobriety,
or who visit the marshy coast in search of sport.
Cholera and malaria are the great enemies of the
northern coast of the island ; whilst inland, at the
elevation of a few thousand feet the climate, during
the greater part of the year, is simply perfection. One
bright morning I went to the cemetery, a large dreary
place, which, although at the time of my visit had been
only twenty years in use, was already crowded to
excess, and I must confess I thought its position by far
too near to the best part of the town. My object was to
trace the grave of one, who had been buried there at the
very commencement of its construction, as the number
thirty-three on the register proved, but there was not
a vestige of it left. The very stone slab that had
covered it had crumbled to pieces, and a damp and
clammy atmosphere pervaded the whole place, which is
laid out in avenues. I was struck by the number of
newly-made open graves, and the significant answer
was “ they may all be filled by this time to-morrow ; ’
which gives a painful idea of the great and sudden
mortality. Graves have always to be kept in readiness.
My contemplated journey into the interior of Java,
requiring the permission and assistance of the Government,
made it necessary for me to call at the palace in
order to deliver my letter of introduction ; this, however,
was by no means so simple a matter as it appeared
to me. I was admitted into the bureau of the secretary,
in whom I soon discovered a great adept in the art of
P 2