SOMBRE AND MELANCHOLY ASPECT. 357 



latter end of January, 1845, on our return from 

 Sourabaya, in the island of Java. 



We anchored inside the heads of the bay on the 

 night of January 27th, having been close in with 

 the shore all the afternoon, and had thus a good 

 opportunity of comparing the aspect of the country 

 with that of the islands we had left so recently. It 

 gained nothing, however, by this circumstance. A 

 low, level strip of land, without a single prominent 

 feature, covered with a thick but short and stunted- 

 looking wood of brown-leaved trees, — it seemed ten 

 times more sombre, dismal, and monotonous than 

 we had previously thought it. It had always ap- 

 peared sufficiently uninviting, even when we had 

 been accustomed to the dark woods and barren 

 shores of Australia ; but now, when we had so 

 recently left countries abounding in beauty and 

 fertility, it looked really melancholy. 



On landing at the settlement next day we found it in 

 a much better condition than we had previously seen 

 it ; a scanty, but green grass somewhat hiding the 

 brown ground. The huts and houses also had been 

 freshly white-washed. The new party, consisting of 

 fifty men, had arrived in November, under Lieute- 

 nants Lambrick and Wright, and Assistant-Surgeon 

 Tilson. Captain M 'Arthur still remained as Com- 

 mandant. Lieut. Lambrick, having little idea of the 

 nature of the place he was coming to, had brought 

 his lady with him, fancying that it might be a 

 small settlement or colonv, rather than a mere 



