t 
S50 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [March, , 
fields, and neatly hedged around. At length, after sailing along 
this coast for some time with a smart breeze, the frigate emerged 
from the strait, doubled Bantam Point, and came to anchor on its 
eastern side, about two miles from the shore, and not far from 
Bantam Bay, where she anchored on the day following, about two 
and a half leagues southeast from St. Nicholas or Bantam Point. 
Bantam Bay is extensive, containing several islands, the largest 
of which is Pulo Panjang, covered with trees, and situated in the 
west part of the entrance. A ship intending to anchor here may 
pass on either side of this island ; but the eastern channel is 
greatly to be preferred. On the following day, the vessel's birth 
was changed for Pangoriang, as being a convenient place to obtain 
a supply of fresh water, and only four miles east of Point St. 
Nicholas. The anchorage in this spot is in fourteen to sixteen 
fathoms, and was much frequented by the Enghsh vessels during 
the short period that Batavia was in their possession. There is a 
passage of four fathoms within two small islands called Pulo 
Kaly, and safe anchorage for small vessels. These islands lie 
about half way between Pangoriang and the red bluff which forms 
the extreme west side of Bantam Bay, which the reader will bear 
m mind is situated on the north side of Java, a few miles east of 
the strait. 
Here the surrounding scenery continued to be an inexhaustible 
.source of enjoyment, in its endless variety of features, and the 
mingled softness and briUiancy which enriched its ever-varying 
hues. The land of Java,, as it recedes from the shore, gently 
ascends with a billowy, undulating surface of hill and dale, to the 
distance of about a mile, all divided into fields, and cultivated to 
the hill-tops. Towering its foliage-crested head proudly above 
the rest, rises Bantam Hill, cultivated like the humbler eminences 
around it, with the exception of its summit, which is surmounted 
with a coronet of majestic trees, hke a forest in the air. Between 
the foot of the hill and the shore are human habitations, almost 
entirely hid in a grove of cocoanut, plantain, and banana-trees, 
which are also scattered in clumps over all the landscape. The 
fields of rice and gardens of pepper vines which climb the hill- 
sides or checker the flats and bottoms, present the changing aspects 
of the young and green blade, just sprouting through the varie- 
gated soil, to the yellow and matured crop, ready for the hands 
