JAVA 145 



Eastern Eailway system with Samarang and Surabaya, 

 and a line is in course of construction to Garut and 

 Chichalengka, which will join it with Batavia. It is 

 guarded by the forts on Kambangan island and by 

 batteries on the mainland, and has a considerable gar- 

 rison. Cheeibon, a town almost opposite to it on the 

 north side of the island, is of secondary rank only, and 

 is chiefly celebrated for its horses. 



The above are the only towns in Java with many 

 European residents. Sueakarta, or Solo, the chief junc- 

 tion of the Eastern Eailway system, although almost 

 entirely native, possesses a larger number of inhabitants 

 than any of them, the population at the last census being 

 over 130,000. It is here that the Susuhunan, or Em- 

 peror of Java, still exercises a nominal sway over a 

 province of more than a million of his subjects, but 

 under the supervision of a Dutch Kesident, with a force 

 of 500 soldiers and a fort. The Emperor lives in con- 

 siderable state, and is surrounded by an amount of luxury 

 and magnificence hardly surpassed by any of the native 

 princes of India. Jokjokaeta, the capital of the pro- 

 vince of that name, is not far from Surakarta, and, like it, 

 is a native city ruled by a sultan. It is finely situated 

 beneath the great cone of Merapi, and from the prox- 

 imity of Brambanam and other ruins is very frequently 

 visited by tourists. It has about 90,000 inhabitants. 



12. The Capital: Life and Manners. 



Towards the end of the sixteenth century the Dutch 

 formed their first settlement in Bantam, driving out the 

 Portuguese, and making the city one of the most im- 

 portant in the East, at a time when Batavia was not 



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