IN THE EAST INDIES. 155 
fifty to one hundred and twenty miles broad. So 
much for one central government instead of several 
hundred petty sultans and rajahs fighting with one 
another. Java rice stands two and a half times higher 
in price than the best Burma, with Cochin China 
next and India a bad fourth. It is the first in the 
produce of sugar, high in coffee, tea, teak, vanilla and 
many other products. The native villages over the 
whole archipelago are absolutely neat and clean. There 
are no clean villages in India. In Java a lazy and 
untidy man goes to jail and works at bridge-building, 
road-making, ete. The rule of the ‘‘orang blanda’’ 
is severe, but absolutely just and they certainly work 
far harder to adapt themselves to native customs and 
to master the languages than other colonizers. Major 
Ouwens can speak French, English, German, Dutch 
of course, Sundanese, Bantamese, Madurese and 
Malay as weil as court Javanese; the latter consists of 
three separate languages, for use with social inferiors, 
equals or superiors. All the above are languages of 
Java. Then he knows the Achinese of North Suma- 
tra, the language of the Diaks of Bangermassin in 
South Borneo, and Buginese is spoken at Makassar in 
Celebes. A Captain Cristofel, who held the record of 
having caught five rebellious sultans in various islands, 
could speak still more native languages. We have 
had a great time here and I could write on for a week 
but I feel that you must be getting tired of it. So I 
shall say good night, as dinner is nearly ready. We 
eat breakfast here about 8.30 (early breakfast when 
we get up) ; the rice table is at 12.30 and dinner from 
8 to 9, or 9.30 at some places like Soerabaya or Bata- 
via where it does not begin to cool off any until that 
