LIFE IN JAVA.*
MR. D'A.1.51EIDA has written an entertaining account of Dutch life in Java rather than that of the Javanese proper. He does not pretend to enter into any of the more recondite questions of Javanese race, religion, and history, or even to discuss the theo- retical nature of Dutch colonization, and his work must therefoie nat be judged by any exhaustive standard. What he has aimed at, and succeeded in doing, is to give a. readable account or Javanese scenery and "lions," Dutch society, and an outline of the institutions of the country. In one respect Mr. d'Almeida's book of travels is an agreeable contrast to that of a prevailing type of traveiler at the present day,—he has not eramp:d imp statistics, history, and legends all in a heap, and then hastily run through the country on which he writes, and exercised all his ingenuity in "bringing in" his information hpropos of tome- thing, no matter what. All that Mr. d'Almeida tells us came within his own immediate observation during a journey in Java, and he only tells us what seemed to him worth telling. He did not intend to write a book about Java objectively, but on:y to record the subjective impression of Java and things Javauese left on his mind. There is unquestionably a certain distinct kind of pleasure in reading a book of travels in which the writer neither affects the position of one who instructs his readers ex cathedrti, nor manifests a foregone determination to be amusing, whatever his subject may be, but simply takes the stand point of an intelligent traveller.
Mr. d'Almeida reached the sea-port of Batavia after the usual four days' steaming in time Dutch mail steamers, and proceeded at once to inspect time town, which consists of a curious combination of heterogeneous materials. First,, there is the business quarter, marked by its large red brick houses, covered with florid decora- tions. They were originally the residences of the first Dutch and Portuguese settlers, who have since moved to other pelts of the city to avoid the night miasma from the river, leaving their mansions to be converted into warehouses. Without going very far from this locality the visitor finds himself in the middle of the regularly built, low, brick houses, with eccentric roofs, of the Chinese campong. The next contrast is still more striking. The quarter now inhabited by Europeans adjoins that of the Chinese, and a visitor fresh from Europe is startled by time ap- pearance of broad streets, handsome shops occupied by tailors, milliners, and other ministers of civilization, a club-house, and private mansions surrounded by gardens. Further on there is another feature of Batavia to be seen, a green or park of a mile square, intersected by avenues of trees and surrounded by houses. In one corner of this plain is a racecourse, sufficient indica- tion of the quarter of Batavia most favoured by English resi- dents. Of course it may be imagined that the Dutchman, so many thousands of miles away from his beloved Rotter- dam or Amsterdam, could not be happy without canaux- even in the absence of canaille and canards,—so time whole city is intersected by canals, of which the banks aro planted regularly with spreading trees, forming water boulevards, far from unpleasant in a hot climate, and presenting a most
animated scene to the passers-by. Time life of the Dutch- man in hot countries is exactly what might have been expected from the nature of the original animal under time influence of the locality to which he is removed. He crops his hair till his head looks like a bullet, and adopts for his fashionable morning costume a white jacket, enormous white peg-top trousers, which
flap about in the breeze like sails, and a cigar. Thus attired he walks about from five a.m. until about seven, as the natives term it, "eating the wind." After this proceeding he ceases to smoke for an hour or so, for the purpose of eating cold meat and eggs, be then resumes his smoking, and goes down to business. At twelve comes a regular Oriental breakfast, and after that a siesta. On waking his first thought is to shout out for a light, and he is immediately attended upon by a boy bearing five hundred or more cigars in one hand, and a lighted Chinese joss-stick in the other. After arraying himself in a suit of evening costume, of which a walking-stick is an essential part, he stoats, still without a hat to cover his shorn head, for a promenade in the park before described. Here, also, the ladies turn out for driving, a decollete dress and elaborate head dresses being de rigueur. Every gentleman is • Ljje in !non' with &etches of the Javaneit. By William Barrington d'Almelda. London: liaretand Blaclett. 1851.
still followed by the footmen with the joss-stick always lighted. On return home, our typical Batavian consumes orange bitters, Hollands, or Kirsch-Was:en makes the most of his fleeting opportunities by smoking another cigar between this refreshment and dinner, eats vigorously, drinks largely of coffee, and follows the ladies to the drawing-room soon after their departure, and puffs away, like a giant refreshed, until midnight.
Mr. &Almeida was much struck with the police system of Batavia. In each of the campongs or quarters, inhabited by distinct nationalities—besides those already mentioned there are Malay and Arab campongs—the most influential citizen is chosen as head of the districr, and is responsible for its quiet and order. Under him are lieutenants, and under them officers of various titles and ranks, whose duty is to discharge all the ordinary police functions. In the Chinese campong, the Capitan Cheena is the title of the head magistrate, who keeps watch at night, issues night passes, without which no one is allowed to stir out after eight o'clock, and tries small cases. The causes which conduce to the good working of this system are the ambition of every sub-official of some day becoming " capalla," or magis- trate, and the strict obligation felt by every inhabitant of a par- ticular campong, as being himself part of the organization, to immediately give evidence even against his most intimate friend, in case of anything affecting the reputation of the campong. All cases above native jurisdiction are tried by a Dutch magistrate by Du!ch law.
Since their occupation of Java the Dutch have hind no light ordeal of wars, rebellions, and conspiracies, to go through. Amongst the latter, that of Peter Elberfield is far the most memorable. Peter Elberfield the elder was a West- phalian, who married a native Javanete about the middle of the seventeenth century, and while five of his sons formed European habits and ideas, the youngest, also named Peter, thoroughly identified himself with native patriotism, and ultimately made the extermination of the Dutch from Java the one object of his life. For a long time the plot was carried on in secrecy with every prospect of success, alliances between the de- throned native potentates and arrangements for the distribution of power were made, and at last the train was laid. Elberfeld with thirty thousand men was to destroy Batavia, and massacre every European, while the native minces in the interior were to rise simultaneously. But Elberfeld had a niece living in his house, who by a strange accident obtained a clue to the plot, and com- municated it to a Dutch officer. The leading conspirators were all seized on the eve of the outbreak, four princes had their right hands cut off, previous to execution, many females implicated were smothered with pillows, and Elberfeld himself, like St. Hippolyte, was tied by the hands and feet to four horses, the whip was applied at once to all four, and every limb was wrenched off his body. His house was razed, and the spot marked by the fixing of his head on a spear above the gate.
Without going into the questions of the respective dates and nature of the Hindoo and Mohammedan invasions of Java, Mr. d'Almeida gives apparently accurate descriptions of many of the principal religious monuments of antiquity in the island. There was one ruined temple in particular which made a considerable impression upon him. The chief feature is a statue hewn out of one block of granite, and supposed by Mr. d'Almeida to be that of one of the Hindoo Gods of death. The following description gives a strange idea of this horrible idol:—
" With large protruding eyes, prominent nose, carved at the nostrils and point, wide mouth, thick, sensual-looking lips, two upper and two lower tusks, it presented a very remarkable and by no means pleasing appearance. On the head was a tiara studded with cleverly chiselled death's heads; the long ears were pierced with ornaments very minutely cut, and from the cartilage of both were suspended hideous skulls. Numbers of chains were hung round the neck, and a loose scarf fell across the broad chest from the left shoulder to the right. Massive bracelets encircled the wrists and biceps, and the right arm was slightly raised, the two first fingers being pointed, as if in the act of command- ing, or giving emphasis to an oracle. A belt of skulls encircled the corpulent stomach, and the left hand rested on a walking-stick or sceptre of stone."
The greater portion of Mr. d'Almeida's book consists of accounts of his rambles in the interior, and must be rend at length to be appreciated. They certainly give altogether a very distinct im- pression of Javanese physical characteristics, and without doubt a faithful one.
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