8 A NATURALIST'S WANBEEINGS 



days. In this low-lying, close and stinking neighbourhood, 

 devoid of wholesome water, scorched in the daytime, and 

 chilled by the cold sea fogs in the night, did the Eastern 

 merchant of half-a-century ago reside, as well as trade. Out 

 of this, however, if he survived the incessant waves of fever, 

 cholera, small-pox, and typhoid, he returned home in a few 

 years, the rich partner of some large house, or the owner of a 

 great fortune. 



All this is changed now. Morning and evening, the train 

 whirls in a few minutes the whole European population — 

 which tries, in vain, to amass fortunes like those of past times 

 — to and from the open salubrious suburbs, the new town, of 

 fine be-gardened residences, each standing in a grove of trees 

 flanking large parks, the greatest of which, the King's Plain, 

 has each of its sides nearly a mile in length. Here the 

 Governor-General has his official Palace — his unoflSeial resi- 

 dence being on the hills at Buitenzorg, about thirty miles to 

 the south of Batavia ; and hero are built the barracks, the clubs, 

 the hotels, and the best shops, dotted along roads shaded by 

 leafy Hibiscus shrubs, or by the Poinciana regia, an imported 

 Madagascar tree, which should be seen in the end of the yeai', 

 when its broad spreading top is one mass of orange-red 

 blossoms, whose falling petals redden the path, as if from 

 the lurid glare of a fiery canopy above. To these pleasant 

 avenues, in the cool of the evening, just after sunset, and 

 before the dinner-hour, all classes, either driving or on foot 

 resort for exercise and friendly intercourse. 



In front of the barracks, another fine park, the Waterloo 

 Plain, is ornamented by a tall column, surmounted by a 

 rampant lion, with an inscription to commemorate the prowess 

 of the Netherlanders in winning the battle of Waterloo. A 

 remark, perhaps not quite fair, of a Ceylon friend on view- 

 ing the pillar and its long inscription : " The lion at the top 

 is not more conspicuous than the lyin' at the bottom I " 



Having been furnished, through the kind influence of 

 Professor Suringar, 6f Leyden, with an autograph letter of 

 recommendation from His Excellency the then Minister for 

 the Colonies, to the Governor-General of the Netherlands' 

 Indies, I proceeded, very shortly after my arrival, to Buiten- 

 zorg, for the purpose of presenting it. From His Excellency 



