8 



A NATUMALIsrS WANDElilNGS 



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

 devoid of wholesome water, scorched in the daytime, and 

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

 merchant of half-a-centnry 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, tlie train 

 whirls in a few minutes the whole European population — 

 which tries, in vain, to amass fortunes like those of i>ast 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 iu length. Here the 

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

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

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

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

 leafy Hibiscus shrubs, or by the Foimiana r&jiUj an imported 

 Madagascar tree, which should be seen in the end of the year, 

 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 cons^cuous than the lyin* at the bottom 1 " 



Having been furnished, through the kind iufluence of 

 Professor Suringar, of Leyden, with an autograph letter of 

 recommendation from His Excellency the then Minister for 

 ihe Colonies, to the Governor-Greneral of the Netherlands* 

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

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



