THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 21 



lace says : " Toward the end of September it became absolutely 

 necessary for me to leturn, in order to make our homeward voy- 

 age before the end of the east monsoon. Most of the men who 

 had taken payment from me had brought the birds they had 

 agreed for. One poor fellow had been so unfortunate as not to 

 get one, and he very honestly brought back the axe he had re- 

 ceived in advance ; another who had agreed for six, brought me 

 the fifth two days before I was to start, and went off immediately 

 to the forest again to get the other. He did not return, how- 

 ever, and we loaded our boat, and were just on the point of 

 starting, when he came running down after us holding up a bird, 

 which he handed to me, saying with great satisfaction, Now I 

 owe you nothing.' These were remarkable and quite unexpected 

 instances of honesty among savages, where it would have been 

 very easy for them to have been dishonest without fear of detec- 

 tion or punishment." 



MAN-EATING TIGERS. 



THE island of Java is more thickly populated than any others 

 of the Archipelago, and the people are more nearly civilized, 

 owing to the fact that this island enjoys a large trade with the 

 Dutch who have settled along the coast in considerable numbers. 

 The city of Batavia, which has a population of nearly 200,000, 

 is largely composed of Europeans. The principal large animals 

 of Java are the tiger, tapir and a small species of rhinoceros, 

 which latter frequently visits interior villages in quest of food, 

 but it rarely shows any disposition to fight. 



The tigers of Java are similar to those of India, being savage 

 and bold. Many persons are destroyed by them annually. 

 During Wallace's visit to the island he entered a village where a 

 man-eating tiger had carried off a boy the day before. Nearly 

 the entire village was in arms, ready to pursue the savage beast. 

 The natives, armed only with spears, surrounded a dense jungle, 

 where they believed the animal lay concealed, and began beating 

 it in a rather reckless manuer. The tiger was roused at length, 

 and finding itself surrounded, made a savage attack, but a half- 

 dozen natives received it on their spears and killed it without 

 sustaining any injury themselves. 



