102 PRODUCTIONS OF MALANG. 



coffee annually, besides tobacco and cigars, and 

 the rice and other grain raised principally for 

 their own consumption. There certainly ap- 

 peared to be an immense production or transport of 

 some kind of produce, for the main road to Passa- 

 rouan ran about fifty yards in front of the hotel, and 

 during the two days and nights we remained there, 

 one ceaseless stream of bullock- waggons seemed 

 to be passing along it. At night this was especially 

 the case, for at whatever hour I awoke I heard the 

 creak of their wooden wheels and the cries of their 

 drivers. 



We had observed to-day in the Chinese, and in 

 some of the native houses, European furniture and 

 utensils, and have never yet, either on the coast 

 or in the interior, met with a beggar, or any 

 one with ragged clothing, or of an emaciated or 

 poverty-stricken appearance. The mass of the 

 people certainly were well clothed, fed, and housed, 

 and I might say well armed, and furnished with 

 good tools. Whatever, therefore, the nature of the 

 Dutch Government may be, it is plain it is not 

 incompatible with the material comfort of the 

 people during ordinary seasons. In times of 

 scarcity, however, I believe great distress occurs, as 

 the mass of the people accumulate no property,* 

 but live entirely from hand to mouth. 



* M. Dickelman ascribed much of their poverty to the prac- 

 tice of chewing opium, and the greater wealth of the Teng'ger 

 people to their freedom from that expensive habit. 



