by the mass of dead bodies consolidating the marshy
nature of the ground! His graphic, although
perhaps not very delicate, remark, had probably more
reference to another much larger fortress commenced
in 1857 at Ban-jou-Birou, a position even more
unhealthy than that of Ambarrawa. The former was
completely destroyed in July, 1865, by the eruption
of the volcano “ Merbabou,” which killed the greater
portion of its garrison.
Ambarrawa, notwithstanding its bad repute, has
within easy reach a pleasant, cool village with a few
European houses scattered about; thence, as far as
Oenarang, the sanatorium of Samarang, 2,000 feet
above the sea, the cultivation consists principally of
rice in the valley, coffee on the hills, and fruit
everywhere. Here I passed the night, and on the
following morning I took leave of the Kadoe, the
gem of Java, unrivalled for the productiveness of its
soil, the beauty of its scenery, and the finest Buddhist
ruin in the world ;—the very cattle and ponies in this
favoured region are larger and better shaped than any in
Java. As regards the latter, by-the-bye, some of the
Moluccas produce the strongest and prettiest I have
seen anywhere. The Resident at Djokjokarta had a
pair of fawn-coloured ponies with a black stripe down
the entire length of the spine, and black mane and
tail, of excellent breed, and more like a thoroughbred
Pegu, but nearly fourteen hands h ig h ; these
came from Timor.
Two hours more took me to Samarang, along a pleasant
road, up and down hill. This time the “Pavilion”
accommodated me, a great improvement upon the
hotel I stayed at before, and a few days later the
“ Koningin Sophia ” took me on to Batavia. Here I
stayed but two days, the rain pouring down incessantly
in such torrents that I had to keep within doors, or at
least under the verandah of the hotel, which gave me
ample time to cogitate upon what I had seen; for it
must always be an interesting episode that a nation
like the Dutch, with a population of barely 4,000,000
souls, should be able, with comparatively insignificant
forces, to maintain beyond the Equator in most
absolute dependency a large empire containing upwards
of 14,000,000 inhabitants. I will here
briefly relate the policy hitherto pursued by the
Government in ruling the finest colony in the
world.
Java is divided into twenty-two provinces, two of
which, Solo and Djokjo are, as we have seen, under the
nominal rule of Emperor and Sultan; in these the
old feudal rights of twenty years holding, rent being