CHAPTER L 



SOJOURN AT OENTENO IN BANTAM. 



On the road — Tlic Sundaaese languivs^— Every man a nAturfllist— Bird-lifa 

 Genteng—\Vt^aver-birH»'nestSr--A native mrat fcnusaar— Forest devastation 

 — Geologital strutjlure of tlio diatricl — A wonderfal case of mimicry in a 

 spider. 



On my return to Java from tiie Keeling Islands, I had the 

 good fortuno to meet in Batavia with a countryman, Mr. 

 Alexander Fni^ser, one of the few freeholders of land in Java, 

 who though just starting for England, kindly offered me the 

 privilege of coUectitig over his vast property situated in the 

 western province of Bantam, and the hospitality of his house if I 

 shoiild choose to stay there. This offer I was only too pleased 

 to accept, ill order, while stiJl within reach of civilisation, to 

 become acquainted with, and gain some pn^ctical experience 

 of, the necessities and mofles of tropical life and camping, of 

 which the «o vitiate traveller has such crude ideas— for collect- 

 ing among tropical vegetation is very diffeient from the ideas 

 formed of it from like operations conducted amidst the sparse 

 woi:tds of our temperate climuto;— but principally to isolate 

 myself from all European-speaking people for the purpose of 

 ficquiiing, with the aid of a few books and chiefly with my 

 native servants, the Mahiy language m raphlly as possible. 

 In addition, the late Dr. Scheffer, the kind Director of the 

 Botanical Gardens in Buitenzorg, had recommended to me 

 Bantam as a profitable and by no means, botanical ly at least, 

 well investigated province to visit. 



Having hi reel a couple of cahars — a sort of spring-cart with 

 one horse, the general mode of conveyance when one travels aa 

 I was about to do, off the main roads, — ^one for myself and one 

 for ray baggage, I left Batavia at sunrise on the 12th of March, 

 by the western road ali>ng the low northern shore lands towards 



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