Chapter I: Preface

In writing these pages I have had before me a double purpose. First, to present to the general reader an account of what seemed to me to be a singularly interesting country, and one which, while being comparatively little known, has yet certain direct claims upon the attention of Englishmen. Secondly, to provide a book which, without being a guide book, would at the same time give information practically useful to the English and Australian traveller.

In sending this book to the press I have to acknowledge the courtesy of the editors of the _Field_ and of _Land and Water_. To the former I am indebted for permission to make use of an unusually interesting quotation from Mr. Charles Ledger's letter to the _Field_ on the subject of cinchona introduction, and also to include a short article of my own on "Horse-racing in Java" in Chapter XII. The latter has kindly allowed me to reproduce an account of my visit to the Buitenzorg Gardens, published in _Land and Water_.

My general indebtedness to standard works, such as Raffles' "Java," and Mr. Wallace's "Malay Archipelago," and also to those gentlemen who, like Dr. Treub, most kindly placed their information at my disposal in Java, is, I hope, sufficiently expressed in the text.

Professor Rhys Davids has very kindly read over the proof sheets of the chapter on the Hindu Temples; and I take this opportunity of acknowledging my sense of his courtesy in so doing, and my indebtedness to him for several valuable suggestions.

The spelling of the Javanese names and words has been a matter of some difficulty. The principle I have finally adopted is this. While adopting the Dutch spelling for the names of places and in descriptions of the natives, and thus preserving the forms which the traveller will find in railway time tables and in the Dutch accounts of the island, I have returned to the English spelling in narrative passages, and in those chapters where the reader is brought into contact with previous English works. But I have found it impossible to avoid occasional inconsistencies. In my account of the literature of the island I have kept to the Dutch titles of Javanese works as closely as possible; but I have modified the transliteration in accordance with the usages of English oriental scholars.

W. B. W.

1, Pump Court, Temple, E.C., November, 1892.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT UP TO THE PRESENT DAY.

Hindus--Mohammedans--Portuguese--English--Dutch--
Legal basis of Dutch possession--British
occupation--Return of Dutch--Culture system--
Eruption of Mount Krakatoa 1

CHAPTER II.

TRAVELLING AND HOTELS.

Area--Climate--Permission to travel--Chief objects of
interest--Means of locomotion--Language--Hotels 17

CHAPTER III.

THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIVES.

Dutch possessions in the East--Government--Army and
navy--Administration--Development of natives--Raden
Saleh--Native dress--Cooking and houses--Rice
cultivation--Amusements--Marriage ceremony 38

CHAPTER IV.

BATAVIA.

Tanjong Priok--_Sadoes_--Batavia--Business
quarter--Telephoning--Chinese Campong--Weltevreden--
Waterloo Plain--Peter Elberfeld's house--Raffles
and Singapore 62

CHAPTER V.

THE HINDU TEMPLES.

The temple remains generally--The connection between
Buddha and Brahma--The Boro-Boedoer--Loro-Jonggrang 86

ANNEX: The Routes to the Temples 100

CHAPTER VI.

BUITENZORG.

Batavian heat--To Buitenzorg by rail--Buitenzorg--
Kotta Batoe--Buffalo--Sawah land--Sketching a
Javan cottage 103

CHAPTER VII.

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS.

History of the Buitenzorg gardens--Teysmann--
Scheffer--Three separate branches--Horticultural
garden--Mountain garden--Botanical garden--
Dr. Treub--Lady Raffles' monument--Pandanus with
aërial roots--Cyrtostachys renda--Stelecho-karpus--
Urostigma--Brazilian palms--Laboratories and
offices--Number of men employed--Scientific strangers 117

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM BUITENZORG TO TJI WANGI.

View of Mount Salak--Railway travelling in Java--
Soekaboemi--No coolies--A long walk--Making
a _pikulan_--Forest path--Tji Wangi at last 134

CHAPTER IX.

THE CULTURE SYSTEM.

Financial system previous to the British occupation--
Raffles' changes--Return of the Dutch--Financial
policy--Van den Bosch Governor-general--Introduction
of the culture system--Its application to sugar--To
other industries--Financial results of the system--
Its abandonment--Reasons of this--Present condition
of trade in Java--Financial outlook 147

CHAPTER X.

ON A COFFEE PLANTATION.

The Tji Wangi bungalow--Coffee plantations--
Cinchona--Native labour--A wayang--Country-bred
ponies--Bob and the ducks--Loneliness of a
planter's life 169

CHAPTER XI.

ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE.

Mr. Wallace and the Malay Archipelago--Animals--
Birds--General characteristics of plants--European
flora in mountains--Darwin's explanation--Fruits--
History of cinchona introduction--Mr. Ledger's
story--Indiarubber 186

CHAPTER XII.

SOCIAL LIFE.

Dutch society in the East--Batavian etiquette--
English residents--Clubs--Harmonie--Concordia--
Lawn-tennis--Planters--Horse-racing 207

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HINDU JAVANESE LITERATURE.

The Hindu Javanese literature concerned with the
past--Javanese alphabet--Extent of Javanese works--
Kavi dialect--Krama and Ngoko--The Mahabharata and
the Ramayana in Kavi--Native Kavi works--The Arjuna
Vivaya--The Bharata Yuddha--Episode of Salya and
Satiavati--Ethical poems--The Paniti Sastra--
Localization of Hindu mythology in Java 223

CHAPTER XIV.

WORKS OF THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIOD.

Uncertainty about the history of the Hindu kingdoms
given by the chronicles--Character of the _babad_,
or chronicle--Its historical value--Brumund's treatment
of the babads--Account of the babad "Mangku Nagara"--
Prose works--The Niti Praja--The Surya Ngalam--
Romances--The Johar Manikam--Dramatic works--The
Panjis--Wayang plays--Arabic works and influence--The
theatre--The wayang 241