JAVA. 
95 
The general colouring of the whole structure is dark grey, which in the distance looks 
black. 
Judging from the general form of perfect Buddhist temples in British India, one would 
be much inclined to regard the Borobuddha as the upper part of a temple buried by 
the hill; this I am much inclined to think is correct, for at the time of my visit slight 
excavations had revealed another, or part of another, terrace as beautifully sculptured 
as the upper ones, and in all probability others will be discovered deeper still. In 
a country like Java, subject to great showers of mud and ashes thrown up by volcanoes, 
numbers of such temples must have been thrown down and buried from time to time. 
Many interesting Hindu relics are occasionally dug up in the fields round about this 
temple, and a thorough search would in all probability reveal much of interest. 
Before I started for Magelang it began to rain and continued to do so for the 
rest of the drive; near the Borobuddha there is a small square temple like those of 
Singosari, in which a great tree has grown up and divided the walls. The Gurong 
Merapi, an active volcano, is in sight the whole of the drive, and jets of steam may 
be seen issuing from near the summit. It takes six hours from Djokjakarta to the 
temple, and two hours from there to Magelang. I remained in Magelang a few days, 
during which time it was very wet; from there I drove to Salatiga, and thence to the 
port of Semarang. Semarang is an important business centre, and an extensive and well- 
built town. On the 16th December, I left in one of the coasting-steamers, by name the 
‘ Maha Yajirunhis ’; not being able to afford the first-class fare, I travelled second, and even 
then the fare was most exorbitant. From Semarang to Singapore it takes four full days’ 
steaming; the first-class fare is £15 Is. 6cZ., the second £7 13s. 9 d. The first-class 
accommodation is, I believe, good; the second is only fit for pigs. The second-class cabin, 
of course, one did not expect to find even habitable, nor was it. Our meals were served in a 
filthy shed: the table-cloth might have been clean once; bread is not provided, and when I 
asked for some I was told that the captain did not provide any such luxuries in the second 
class. The captain of this ship was too important a personage to be even decently civil to 
second-class passengers; but before I left I had an encounter with him which lowered his 
colours a bit. The smell of the bedding in the cabin being too rotten to be supportable in 
so confined a space, I had it taken on deck at nights. One night it began to pour in 
torrents, and I took refuge under the lee of the captain’s cabin; he seeing the mattress in 
the w r et came out like a mad bull and began to storm. This was the last straw, so I opened 
on him and gave him in carefully selected language my idea of his ship, and the fraud it 
was to pretend to have second-class accommodation. The captains of these ships find 
the passengers in food, receiving so much per head from their employers, so consequently 
they take care that you do not over-eat yourself. As I have before stated, I consider the 
Dutch coasting-steamers are a disgrace to these beautiful colonies, and think that a fair 
tariff should be forced on them by the Government. 
After waiting a few days in Singapore, I sailed for Labuan, arriving there on the 
10th January, 1887, after one of the roughest passages I have ever experienced. 
