Singular Custom in the Barracks. i']i 



Gold Coast, considerations of health were the main reason for 

 his rctui'n to the Dutch East Indies. 



The last days of our stay at Batavia we devoted to an in- 

 spection of various public institutions. First of all we care- 

 fully examined the barracks, which present several points of 

 special interest. Major Smits was so kind as to accompany 

 us over the extensive grounds, in which were at the time some 

 800 men. The soldiers are all volunteers, and consist of 

 about 250 whites, and 600 of the various coloured races of 

 the Malay Ai'chipelago. The wliite troops sleep in beds, the 

 coloured upon wooden settles covered with mosquito-nets. 

 Each soldier is allowed to have his wife beside Imn, and it is 

 affirmed that this extraordinary practice tends to make them 

 more orderly and regular, by accustoming them more speedily 

 to life in the barrack, which thus becomes for them a sort of 

 small town ! The women for their part prove highly service- 

 able as cooks, washerwomen, vendors of edibles, &c., and man- 

 age a sort of small market for each company, where the soldier 

 can find every tiling he may require for satisfying his usually 

 very moderate wants. 



Major Smits ordered a number of the soldiers, representa- 

 tives of the most important Malay t^q^es, to be submitted to a 

 series of anthropometrical measurements, and made a present 

 to the Expedition of a number of objects of ethnogi^aphical 

 interest. 



In company with Dr. Steenstra Toussaint, an ardent and 



