210 JIN ABU FINDS 



the Dutch Governor, or Controller, the jail, the 

 barracks for the Dutch local army, which consist 

 largely of native soldiers, and the quarters of the 

 Dutch officers ; on the opposite side are the Sultan, 

 the native host, and a few Chinese shops. 



Here I disembarked from the Hong Wan, a 

 Chinese tramp steamer of low speed and high 

 stench, to be greeted, in bare feet and sarong, by 

 the Controller, who was most hospitable and ac- 

 commodating. He insisted on taking me to his 

 own house, where his pleasant-faced, good- 

 humored wife made the most toothsome curry I 

 have ever tasted, and promised that on the day fol- 

 lowing I should be presented to the Sultan, of 

 whom, he assured me, it was necessary to get per- 

 mission for my visit to the interior. The day of 

 my audience fell also upon the one chosen to cele- 

 brate the opening of the palace which the Dutch 

 Government had recently completed for him, and 

 was made the occasion of a public reception and 

 much hilarity through the insinuating influence of 

 a Dutch cordial called " pint "—whatever that may 

 be. The Controller and his staff came in full uni- 

 form, but the Sultan received us in the European 

 clothes he always affects on gala occasions, sup- 

 ported by his full standing army (of twenty, 

 officers and men), and a semicircle of brass-tray- 

 bearing natives among whom were distributed the 



