130 RUINS OF MAJOPAHIT. 



About two o'clock, we contrived to get mounted 

 again, though very indifferently, and proceeded to 

 Majokerto, or Japan. The country was very flat, 

 almost wholly under cultivation, principally occupied 

 by rice-fields, but with some small patches of indigo. 

 It looked, however, dry and burnt up, as well 

 as bare and dreary after the splendid country among 

 the mountains. We frequently passed piles of old 

 bricks, and at one place on the right-hand side of the 

 road, was an alley in a wood, leading to a fine ruin 

 of brick, part of a lofty gateway apparently. This 

 was a fragment of the very extensive brick ruins of 

 the ancient city of Majopahit, which are strewed 

 over a space hereabouts of three miles in diameter. 

 This city was the capital of the last of the Hindoo 

 empires of the island, and w T as destroyed in the year 

 of Java 1400 (a.d. 1478), by the party who had 

 been converted to Mahomedanism, which, from that 

 time, became the religion of the whole island. At 

 four o'clock, we entered Majokerto, which seemed 

 to be a very extensive place, but of which we only 

 got a very transient glance, as we cantered through 

 it to the house of M. Blankenharden, a Dutch gen- 

 tleman, to whom we had been recommended, and 

 who received us with the greatest kindness and hos- 

 pitality. His house was not far from the right bank 

 of the Kediri, and near it was a large sugar estab- 

 lishment belonging to him. The Kediri is here con- 

 fined by embankments, which rise several feet above 

 the general level of the country. This is about the 



