IN JAVA, 



107 



in waiting to haul us up the long steep bank out of the gorge, 

 beyond which the tmd was ejisy, and tlie horaes, urged to their 

 utmost speed, dcished along througii vilhige after village, 

 rousing the dogs and awakening the sleepers. The night 

 growing into day i>rought us one of the pleasantest portions of 

 our drive. The grey tints of the short dawn passing gradually 

 through many lovely hues into a delicate blue, and the fresh 

 woodetl landscaj)© lit up by the morning sun more charmingly 

 than nt any other hour of the day^ are the beauties, never 

 wearying to the eye, that accompany the nj>entng of a tropiciil 

 day. At 8 a.m. we drew rein at Bandong post-office, having 

 accomplished somewhat over eighty miles in thirteen hours. 



Bandung is the cUicf town of the Preangor Regencies, one 

 of the largest ami richest residencies in Java, In this province 

 the Government has some of its most extensive coffee gardens, 

 tobacco and cinchona plantations. The toivn is large antl 

 straggling, containing but few European houses; its most 

 interesting building is the residence of the Hegent or native 

 governor of the district. In Iront of his dt>or is a great square, 

 in the centre uf which a giant tig-tree grows, beneath whose 

 shade on liigh days the natives congregate to Bport and to 

 pay respect to tlie chief. Though some 2000 feet above the 

 se^i it is hot and close at all seasons, and is not a very pletisant 

 place to live in. The larger part of the trading pupulation is 

 Chinese and Arab, the natives taking little or no part in it ; 

 but the district is noted for its beautiful oruamenkil baskets 

 of bamboo wicker-work, 



Bandong stands in the centre of an immense level plain 

 hemmed in on all sides by very high mountains — most of 

 them volcanoes — whieh discharge their streams into it, whose 

 waters can find only one outlet, the Tjitarooni, which issues 

 from the western angle and Hows northward into the Java Sea. 

 In prehistoric times this plain must have been one large lake, 

 till, liy the convulsions and eruptions of the volcanic peaks 

 that banked it in, a gajj was fortned, which draiuf-d off the 

 water, and turned its bottom into a fruitful field. On the 

 whole one would have pTcferri'd the lake, and Java eoidd then 

 have boasted of one respectable fresh-water sea, a feature of 

 beauty conspicuously and unex^jectedly absent from so moun- 

 tainous and volcanic a country. 



