naries are not allowed
to visit the interior. I asked about schools, and ascertained that in
the province of which the regency of Bantong forms a part, and which
contains some 600,000 inhabitants, there were five; not, I suspect,
much attended. It was clear from the tone of the officials that there
was no wish to educate the natives. There is a kind of forced labour.
They pay a tithe of the produce of their rice-fields; are obliged (in
certain districts) to plant coffee, and to sell the produce at a rate
fixed by the Government; in others, to work on sugar estates, and, in
all, to make roads. Nevertheless, I am not satisfied that they are
unhappy, or that the system can be called a failure. In those
districts which I visited there was no appearance of their being
overworked; and I was assured that, on the sugar estates, the
proprietors have no power of punishing those who do not work; that it
rests with the officials exclusively to do so. The tone of the
officials on the subject is, that no punishment is necessary, because,
although they are so lazy that if they had the choice they would never
do anything, they do not make any difficulty about working when they
are told to do so. Economically it is a success. The fertility of the
island is very great, so that the labour of the natives leaves a large
surplus after their own subsistence is provided for. There are twenty
provinces, in each of which the chief officer is the president--a
Dutchman; but the native chief (Regent) has the more direct relations
with the people, arranges about their labour, &c. The Dutch officials
look after him, and see that he does not abuse his power.

[Sidenote: Ceylon.]

Pressing eagerly forward, he reached Ceylon, the scene of so many anxieties
and disasters, on the last day of February.

_Ceylon, March 2nd._--I found here your letters to January 10th, and
am relieved... Where is our meeting to be?... If I can, I shall take
the route through Trieste and Paris.

On the 20th he writes from the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai:--

[Sidenote: Sinai.]

_March 20th.--Noon._--We are now in the Gulf of Suez. On the right
side a row of arid mountains with serrated crests, and a margin of
flat dry sand at the base, and behind them what is reputed to be Mount
Sinai. Only a glimpse of the latter can, however, be caught at one