110 JAVA. [ciiAP.vii 



I accumulated ninety-eight speciea of birtls^ but a most 

 miserable lot of insects. I then determined to leave East 

 Java and t\j the more moist and hixiiriatit districU at the 

 western extremity of the island. I returned to Sourabaya 

 by water, in a roomy boat which brouglit myself, servants, 

 and bufTgage at one fifth the expense it had cost me to 

 come to ifodjo-kerlo. The river has been rendered 

 navigable by being carefully banked up, l.nifc with the usual 

 eflect of rendering the adjacent country liable occasionally 

 to severe floods. An immense traffic passes down this 

 river ; and at a lock we passed throuj^h, a mile of laden 

 boats were waiting two or three deep, which paas through 

 in their turn six at a time. 



A few days afterwards I went by steamer to Batavia, 

 where I stayed about a week at the eluef hotel, while 

 I made arrangements fur a trip into the interior. The 

 business part of the city is near the hai'l}our, hut the 

 hotels and all the residences of the ofticials and European 

 merchants are in a sulturl) two miles oil; laid out in wide 

 streets and squares so as to cover a great extent of ground. 

 Tldi^ is very inconvenient for visilO]*s, as tlie only public 

 conveyanees are handsome two-horse can-iages, whose 

 lowest cliaige is five gudders (8s. for haU' a day. so 

 that an hour's business in the morning and a visit in 

 the evening costs \Qs, a day for carriage hire alone. 



liatavia agrees very well with iti-. Jloney's graphic ac- 

 count of it, except that his " clear canals" were "all muddy, 

 and his " smooth gravel drives " up to the Ijoiises were one 

 and all formed of coarse pebbles, very painful to walk upon, 

 and haixily explained by the fact that in Batavia ever>'- 

 body drives, as it can hai\lly be sup|KJsed that jx'ople 

 never walk in their gardens. The Hotel des Indes was 

 very comfortable, each visitor having a sitting-room and 

 ItedTOom opening on a verandah, where he can take his 

 morning coffee and afternoou tea. In the centre of the 

 • juadrangle is a building containing a number of marble 

 l^aths always ready for use; and there is an excellent 

 taUe d'hSie bmtkfast at ten, and dinner at six, for all 

 which there is a moderate charge per day. 



I went by coach to Bnitonzorg, forty miles inland and 

 about a thousand feet above the sea', celebrated for its 



