ANY THING BUT SPRING-WATER. 67 
a dessert of some capsized unfortunate. The shark never 
crosses the bar, and the crocodile never goes up higher 
than the first houses ; so the natives bathe in perfect se- 
curity in the part of the canal running through the city. 
The water of this stream is of a dirty grayish-white colour, 
holds in suspension the sweepings of the city, and smells 
horribly. One would scarcely imagine it conducive to 
cleanliness to bathe in it; and yet it is the water fur^ 
nished to shipping for drinking-purposes. It is also used 
—after passing through stone filterers— by the entire 
population of Batavia, — a fact which causes many ‘first- 
comers’ to say very little about thirst for several days 
after their arrival. 
“I judged, from various indications, that the Dutch 
have these people in complete subjection. Even the 
natives, their own fellows, who are so fortunate as to 
be in the Government employ, are respected, feared, and 
obeyed as though they were superior beings. This was 
exemplified even in the conduct of our temporary boat- 
men, who, when we would get fouled among other 
boats, — the canal -was always crowded, — cleai'ed a track 
for us with curses, threats, and frequent blows, and were 
scarcely scowled upon in return. I thought this strange, 
as my previous idea of the Malay character was that of 
a wild, untamable, treacherous, and warlike race.” 
We have landed at the lower town, and hired a con- 
veyance to take us up to the city. 
“ Our carriage was a comfortable, strongly-built, double 
buggy, that ran on four very small and solid w^heels and 
was drawn by two very small and solid horses, — horses 
about the size of a large Shetland pony. Our driver was 
