313 COFFEE. 



I shall never forget my last day at Buitenzorg : sitting upon 

 the balcony during the closing hotirs of a tropical November after- 

 noon, all nature seemed to be at rest ; the slender palms, which 

 are ever waving their restless leaves, were as still as silence itself, 

 and the dragon-flies floated so lazily in the rays of the setting sun 

 that I threw down my fan, so out of harmony was its motion with 

 the spirit of the scene. Only the river, the ever running river, 

 moved, and that seemed to have lost its ripples and glided where 

 before it ran murmuring past. It seemed as if I could never tire 

 of this scene ; I sat and gazed at the shadows creeping slowly up 

 the mountain-side until they reached the ragged crater at the top, 

 and the halo of light suddenly faded. Then a purple mist envel- 

 oped the mountain ; the deep ravines and fissures in its side, which 

 before had been visible, faded away, and soon nothing was visible 

 but the dim blue outline which long held its place amid the dark- 

 ening shadows. I have enjoyed and left other places with regret, 

 but I could not put aside the positive sorrow I felt at leaving 

 Buitenzorg. The short stay in Java was so enjoyable that I much 

 wish that my arrangements had been such that I might have de- 

 voted sufficient time to visit other parts of the island, which are 

 said to be equal or superior in attractions to those which I visited. 



Indeed, explorers tell us of a wealth of tropical scenery in all 

 the great islands of the Malayan Archipelago, which is equalled 

 nowhere upon the globe. Here are islands with an extent of ter- 

 ritory which entitles them almost to the name of continent: 

 Sumatra, more than 1,000 miles long ; Java, 600 ; Borneo, 900, 

 with a breadth almost as great ; while Celebes and others of the 

 Moluccas and Spice Islands are of a size and possess a soil and 

 climate which would make them of great importance if situated 

 anywhere else than in this vast and far distant Indian Ocean. 

 Much of this great territory has not, as yet, even been visited by 

 the explorer ; not a ten-thousandth part has yet been cleared of 

 jungle, and this small portion hardly scratched by the plough- 

 share. Yet its productions fill the ships and warehouses of all 

 nations with the richest and most valuable products known in 

 commerce. 



AH this great region is nominally in the possession of the 

 Dutch ; I say nominally, for it is only here and there that their 



