242- Voyage of the Novara. 



Adjoining Jungliulni's dwelling, a large proportion of the 

 coffee beans raised in the Preanger district are prepared for the 

 European market. The Government has farmed the process 

 to one M. Phlippan, and first deals with the beans when, 

 packed in sacks, they are ready for exportation. The entire 

 coffee crop of the environs of Bandong, averaging about 80,000 

 piculs (or 10,000, OOOlbs.), is conveyed annually over the 

 hills to Lembang, where the fleshy berries" are first shelled 

 and made ready. For this purpose they use the Brazilian 

 or moist mode of treatment, by which process, however, ac- 

 cording to the opinion of connoisseurs in coffee beans, much 

 of their flavour must be lost. But, instead of attributing 

 tlie well-marked decrease of flavom- of the Java coffee bean 

 to this mode of preparation,* others are disposed to find the 

 cause of this deterioration in degeneration of the coffee- 

 shrub itself, and accordingly the Dutch Government sent out 

 to Java the well-known botanist Professor Vriese (with ap- 

 pointments']" which must appear almost fabulous to a German 

 botanist), in order to determine upon scientific data the 

 cause of the falling off of the coffee bean. The sending out 

 to Java a Professor of the University of Leyden, who had 

 never before been in the Dutch East Indies, in order to en- 



* At all events, among the planters up the country the opinion prevails that the 

 coffee-beans prepared by the native population on what is called the parching method 

 are of far finer and more durable quality than those prepared by the former 

 process. 



f Professor Vriese, besides having all expenses paid, drew a salary of £1000 per 

 annum, besides 10 guilders (16s. 8</.) a-day for every day passed by him in the interior 

 of the island while engaged in its explorations. 



